The Pacifist Necromancer of Hogwarts

Chapter 363: Misfortunes and blessings call upon themselves
Anthony sighed deeply.

"I hate killing people," he said frankly.

"You seemed to have said that before." Quirrell chuckled, "How funny." He coughed again. He raised the small bottle in his hand and wanted to pour some more into his mouth, but found that the blood had all coagulated, coating the mouth of the bottle with a beautiful silver-white solid.

"Clear water is like a spring."

Quirrell coughed and drank the water in the bottle, and Anthony filled it for him. Quirrell turned his face away, curled up and coughed heart-wrenchingly for a while, drank a few more glasses of water, and then he gasped and recovered.

"How funny! Power often turns its back on those who pursue it, but favors those who waste it recklessly." Quirrell said weakly, "But you might be lying, right? Maybe you didn't actually waste your power, but you were just bored with easy victories. My... my master said that, except for him, the necromancy you mastered might be enough to kill anyone you wanted. But the Dark Lord has already conquered death. Is that why you came here, Professor Anthony? To challenge the one you can't beat? The one who escaped unscathed from your necromancy last time?"

"You are trembling, Quirrell," Anthony asked. "Is this the strength you speak of?"

"I... I do not have the power of my master," Quirrell said, "but even the small part I have learned..."

Anthony stood up and Quirrell immediately shut up.

"Is this what your master taught you?" Anthony looked down at Quirrell and gestured toward the house outside the woods. "Bullying others, or trembling with fear?"

"I never said I was brave," Quirrell said tremblingly. "Isn't it normal to be afraid when facing death?"

"I didn't say I was going to kill you."

"No?" Quirrell looked up and glanced at him again. "Oh, but you do want to do this. All right."

Anthony said nothing. The necromancy gently wrapped around Quirrell's soul, like a veil covering a statue. Fear was like mustard sauce, mixing a little bit of spicy irritation into Quirrell's bland, slightly sour and bitter taste. The statue would collapse with just a slight tug, and a soul with flavor was so fascinating. Anthony knew that with the help of the felicity potion, even if he swallowed Quirrell's soul, he would not have to experience the feeling of being drunk and dizzy, nor would he have the distress of being lost in the necromancy.

Quirrell helped Voldemort sneak into Hogwarts. He killed unicorns. He tortured innocent people. He deserved the death penalty from every perspective - Muggle or magical.

"It seems right to do so," Anthony said, raising his wand and pointing it at Quirrell. The Felicis joyfully set his magic flowing. Quirrell turned pale, his breathing quickened, and he squeezed his eyes shut, but tears continued to flow.

Bang! With a loud bang, a skinny rabbit appeared where Quirrell had just sat. The birds in the forest chirped and flew away. The rabbit opened its eyes wide, lay on the ground, and trembled violently.

If it hadn't been for the Felicis Felicis, Professor McGonagall would probably have been quite proud of him.

Anthony threw the rabbit to the ghost chicken: "But, I'm not a judge."

Keeping Quirrell alive would be more useful: he could serve as evidence that Voldemort still existed, tearing open the cloth that the Ministry of Magic had covered their eyes with; he helped Voldemort conduct various research experiments, and probably knew a lot of Voldemort's secrets, perhaps including the reason why it was difficult to pull Voldemort's soul out of the world; Dumbledore could get more information from Quirrell than Anthony could get...

Anyway, that's what Anthony tried to explain to the Felicis as it tightened its grip on his stomach. But the discomfort was getting worse. As a corpse, there was only one reason he could feel such vivid pain: magic.

Just as he was wondering whether this was the effect of the potion itself or a physiological reaction caused by the spoiled potion, Anthony heard Sirius' anxious call from the woods: "Henry! Is that you, Henry? Henry!" He suddenly realized that the cat was approaching him quickly.

"Sirius!" Anthony shouted.

"Henry? Where are you? What happened?" Sirius' voice came closer. With rustling sounds, the black-haired man hurried out of the woods.

"It's okay, Sirius," Anthony said. "What's wrong?"

Sirius was visibly relieved to see him standing safe and sound under the tree.

"Oh my god, Henry. I found Voldemort's camp. He should be around here. The traces seemed to be in your direction, so I thought..." He shrugged. "Well, I thought too much. You drank Felicis after all - oh, damn."

He held onto the tree next to him, hunched his shoulders, and looked a little uncomfortable.

"Are you okay?" Anthony asked concernedly.

"Nothing. This damn potion almost made me breathless." Sirius said, "But we have found a clue. Have you found anything here?" His eyes fell on the corpse of the giant snake, and then the rabbit that was pressed by the claws of the ghost chicken. "What is this? You saved a rabbit?"

"I'll talk to you later." Anthony said absentmindedly, "Let's go back first." He was trying to shrink the dead snake and throw it into his pocket.

As the vengeful chicken pecked him hard, Sirius pushed away the chicken's claws, grabbed the rabbit's ears, and lifted Quirrell up.

"Looks like some kind of Transfiguration," said Sirius, drawing his wand.

Anthony quickly said, "No! That's Quirrell!"

But Quirrell had already seized the opportunity, and while Sirius was distracted, he suddenly broke free and jumped to the ground. The wraith chicken chased after it angrily, flapping its wings and hitting it all over the head, kicking the fleeing rabbit with its sharp claws, and turning its head to peck at Sirius's boots as it passed by, leaving several obvious dents on the leather.

"Stupefy!" cried Sirius.

A beam of red light passed through the transparent body of the Wraith Chicken and hit the ground, no more than an inch away from the rabbit. The Wraith Chicken screamed in reproach and flew up a little. Quirrell turned around and rushed to the bushes -

"There are so many obstacles—" Anthony tried to stop him, but the spell also failed. His stomach was still curled uncomfortably from the Felicis.

Sirius waved his wand, "Bind them quickly!"

The thick rope appeared out of nowhere and flew towards Quirrell, but was immediately caught by the branches of the bushes. The branches shook, the leaves fell, the dust flew, and the rabbit ran wildly. Anthony didn't have time to think more, and chased after it with Sirius.

"The flames are blazing! The flames are blazing! The flames are blazing!"

The bushes were set on fire one after another. In the billowing black smoke, the ginger cat suddenly jumped out from the woods next to it and held down the skinny rabbit. As the rabbit kicked, the ghost chicken also flew over.

"You know, Henry, I think you have a point." Sirius looked at the rabbit's trembling body in the firelight, panting slightly, "The Felicis may really have expired. Now I feel a little unlucky. Clear water is like a spring."

"I don't feel too good either," Anthony agreed, and he and Sirius put out the fire with the Cleansing Charm. A certain feeling of discomfort still filled his stomach.

Hunger, he thought, a small voice said, "I'm hungry... You were so close to having a decent tea..." Anthony shook his head, trying to get rid of the voice. It's diarrhea, he thought.

Anthony said, "Let's go back."

Sirius nodded and looked around, "Of course, but..." He placed his wand in his hand, "Show me the way."

The wand swung and pointed toward the deep woods to their right and in front of them. The dripping bushes stood there like charred bones, emitting a smoldering smell.

"That's where the north is?" Sirius frowned. "That's strange... show me the way." He said to the wand again. The wand waved in his hand and pointed to the woods on the left again.

"Show me the way," Sirius repeated, this time pointing his wand behind him.

Sirius put away his wand, held it in his hand, looked around vigilantly, and whispered, "There's something strange about this place, Henry."

Anthony also put the wand in his hand and whispered to it, "Show me the way."

The wand turned around and finally turned to face them. Sirius glanced at the result of Anthony's wand with a serious face and held the wand tighter. "What does this mean?" Anthony asked softly.

Sirius did not answer. His breathing was so shallow that it was almost inaudible. The wet, charred branches still crackled slightly. Otherwise, everything was silent.

The cat picked up Quirrell and sat down demurely. Quirrell the rabbit hung his head, his sparse, slightly burnt fur stained with blood, and twitched from time to time.

Suddenly, there was a soft rustling of branches - Sirius immediately turned his wand around, pointing it at the dark woods - they waited for a moment, nothing happened. The cat lay down. Maybe it was the wind? Another rustle - still nothing.

"The location is covered here, and I can't Apparate." Sirius explained to him in a low voice, "There must be something hidden. Something big, maybe a magic school in Albania. That means a lot of wizards who don't speak the same language."

Anthony wished he didn't know the answer.

"It's Voldemort."

Sirius frowned: "He should be on the other side, Felicis..."

He suddenly fell silent, lowered his body, and stared intently at the woods in front of them. A more obvious rustling sound came from the woods, and the next moment, three big snakes swam out.

"Break to pieces!" Sirius yelled. The curse hit the tail of the big snake in the middle, causing it to raise its head in pain and anger, hissing and spitting out its tongue, and rushing straight towards the direction where the curse came from.

"There are many obstacles! Protect yourself with armor!" Anthony waved his wand, "Turn them all into stone!"

His petrification spell missed completely, and Sirius's freezing spell was not much better. Anthony threw out four or five cutting spells in succession, and finally cut the snake in the middle into two pieces, while the one on the right was struggling to resist the pecks of the wraith chicken. More snakes emerged from the woods like a tide, and swam densely on the grass.

"Flame!" cried Sirius. "Flame! Forget aiming, Henry! We are terribly unlucky now!"

Long snakes slid down from the high branches, their scales gleaming faintly in the light of the flames. The wraith chicken flapped its wings and shuttled among the snakes, leaving a deep bloody hole on the head of each snake that swam to its side. Sirius roared, making six or seven snakes near him tangled together like yarn, and then threw them away like bowling balls. The cat also threw Quirrell aside and joined them.

Anthony pointed to the center of the snake group: "Thunder explosion!" The tree closest to them exploded with a bang, and burning wood chips flew everywhere like fireworks.

"Henry!"

"That's right," agreed Anthony. "We are really unlucky. There are so many obstacles!"

All the snakes in front of him were knocked away, twisting their bodies in mid-air and falling far back into the snake tide. Almost in the next second, more snakes surged up.

Sirius yelled, "Too many!"

"I've never seen so many snakes," Anthony said. "Well, it feels like we're in a bait bag. You know what I mean? The bag is full of tangled worms..."

"You're ridiculous," laughed Sirius. "There are so many obstacles!" Another group of snakes flew up.

Anthony turned around, avoiding Sirius' direction, and cast a deterrent spell to look at the snake tide on the other side. The rushing snakes retreated six or seven feet in fear, suddenly revealing a patch of grass. However, before Anthony could continue, they swam back one after another, as if driven by another force that made them more awed.

Anthony threw petrification spells randomly at the snakes - thanks to chance, the number of snakes was somehow enough to make up for his bad luck - but more snakes kept joining in, making the swarm gradually approach like a rising tide.

"My patronus is a big bear," Anthony said suddenly.

"what?"

"I say, my Patronus is a big bear! We can ride on the bear to get out!"

"But where to?" said Sirius. "We don't know where we are! And if this is really Voldemort, then this is our destination! The flames are blazing -" His eyes glittered in the firelight, staring intently at the curled up charred snake corpse, "I will never run away at this time!"

Anthony pointed out: "But we are very unlucky now."

"Of course, unlucky enough to run into Voldemort! There couldn't be a better opportunity! I should have thought of it sooner!"

Anthony turned his head and looked at him. Sirius's wand slashed down hard, and there was a huge explosion, which blew away the snakes in front of Anthony.

"Petrification! Stay focused, Henry!" said Sirius. "Shatter! Shatter! Flame!"

"Okay. Stay away, Sirius," Anthony said, putting his wand back in his pocket.

Sirius didn't even turn his head, "What happened? Thunderbolt explosion!"

"Stay away from me," Anthony repeated, and held out his hand toward the snakes.

Oh, souls. Snakes. Tiny, tasteless souls, slightly frightened, like bubbles in soda, more numerous than they are, but only slightly more flavorful than bland. Snakes, snakes, snakes, and snakes again. Snakes again. Snakes in sardines. Ah, this was the salad thing. He remembered that he couldn't eat this, but why? Never mind, snakes, snakes, snakes, snakes.

There was a sound from something that smelled pretty good: "Fire—flame!"

But I can't eat it either. So annoying. Snakes, snakes, snakes.

"Expedience Patronus, uh..." said the Inedible, "Henry..."

Henry? Snake, snake, snake, snake. Wait, Henry?

Anthony suddenly came to his senses. He turned his head hastily and saw Sirius holding his wand, his face pale, his teeth clenched tightly, and his eyebrows knitted together uncomfortably. In front of them, the grass was full of lifeless snake corpses.

"Sirius?" Anthony quickly supported him.

"Merlin, Henry. What did you just do?" Sirius gasped. "What was that, summoning Dementors? God, you're cold as ice too."

"how are you feeling?"

"It's like being back in Azkaban. Almost as pleasant as being back home." Sirius smiled. "Anyway, we don't have to worry about snakes anymore--"

Before he could finish, another group of snakes emerged from the woods.

"No way," said Sirius in disgust.

But this time the snakes stopped about ten feet away from them. With an evil, creepy hiss, three or four giant snakes supported a package-like object and gently lifted it up. As it gradually rose, a flat snake face appeared in the package. Sirius made no sound, but his breathing became rapid. Anthony didn't know if he was recalling the key points of flesh magic like himself, especially the side effects of various magics.

The terrifying red eyes on the snake's face glanced at the still unconscious rabbit. A wand came out of the package and pointed at the rabbit, turning Quirrell back into human form.

"Look, who has my servant brought to me?" Voldemort said softly, "Please forgive my rudeness, Professor Anthony, I can only meet you in this manner at present. Ah, yes, I have always wanted to see you again."

(End of this chapter)