The Pacifist Necromancer of Hogwarts

Chapter 367 Choice
Following the necromantic light, Anthony almost instantly found his pets huddled together. Ignoring the terrified screams of the wraith rats in his mind, he darted out of the bushes and climbed to the wraith chicken. Through the wraith chicken's transparent wings, he could see the cat sleeping peacefully.

He squeezed under the wing of the vengeful chicken. The icy spirit was trying its best to stop the cat's body temperature from rising further—in a way similar to trying to freeze the cat to death. The chicken moved aside, making room for the snake, and clucked soothingly.

Anthony opened his mouth and bit the cat.

The cat's breathing quickened, and Anthony could feel its furry belly heaving violently against his body. Venom and necromancy seeped into the cat's neck through his fangs, slowly making him dizzy. Clearly, a snake's venom was finite. Anthony kept his teeth embedded in the cat's flesh, pondering where he should go to find more death, more necromancy for the cat, amidst its increasingly slow and faint breathing.

The answer was obvious… no, certainly not Quirrell or Voldemort. Anthony had no reason to believe that their deaths contained too much impurity for his cats. There were better options nearby: freshly dead snake corpses, awakened by necromancy.

He picked up the cat and swam deeper into the forest. The vengeful chicken flew ahead, leading the way and scaring away a few roe deer that curiously eyed them; while the rats followed behind, occasionally standing on their hind legs, cautiously probing their surroundings. The cat swayed back and forth in his mouth. He'd better hurry. If he lost too much necromancy, if he lived too long, even if he eventually awakened the skeleton cat, Anthony couldn't guarantee it wouldn't be the cat he knew. Just as death devours life, life also erodes death.

Anthony couldn't help but recall the story Dumbledore had told about the Resurrection Stone: a wizard crossed the boundary and brought his deceased lover back to Earth, but the lover was unwilling to return. He also thought of his own pets, who preferred to stay in their rooms or go for walks away from people, because they disliked living beings.

When he first awakened the vengeful rat, he hesitated whether to send it back to death, but it chose to stay, its whiskers trembling. He also asked the vengeful chicken if it wanted to come back, and the chicken did. But did he never ask the cat's opinion?
After passing several earthen mounds, and skirting tree trunks and rocks, Anthony saw his legs stretched out before him. Beyond his legs lay a field of intertwined snakes and long-dead unicorns.

He put the cat on the ground. The cat lay on its back, sleeping peacefully with its belly exposed. Anthony gently nudged the cat with his muzzle.

There is enough death here, he thought. Like a stream flowing into a lake, he carefully controlled the flow of necromancy toward the cat. He both hoped it would return and worried that it might prefer to sleep peacefully forever, no longer living as an undead creature in the cracks between the living and the dead. Perhaps because of this hesitation, in the necromancy's perception, the cat's glow flickered, as if it too was lingering on the edge of death.

After Anthony emerged from his grave, the cat stayed by his side—either coldly perched atop his wardrobe watching him, or boisterously leaping and bounding around the room, reminding him to feed the cat, fix the furniture, and clean. "I want my cat," Anthony thought as he moved more snakes near the cat, "but if…"

Suddenly, the cat's fur vanished, replaced by two bursts of soul fire leaping from its skull. Anthony paused in surprise, then moved closer to the cat.

The cat shrank its neck in disgust, extended its claws, and swiftly and precisely severed the giant snake's head once more along the almost vanished gap. *Thud!* Anthony emerged from Nagini and burrowed into his own body.

The vengeful chicken and vengeful mouse happily gathered around the cat, who then pulled the vengeful mouse under its chin. Anthony let his head roll to the cat's side, but before he could speak, the skeletal cat swatted at him with its paw, shoving him away with a gurgling sound.

“Hey!” Anthony protested.

The skeletal cat stood up, slowly stretched, and walked over to Anthony, scrutinizing his bizarre appearance. Anthony couldn't help but laugh. Just moments ago, it was the cat's longing, not Anthony's, that had ignited those two soul flames. The cat had returned, and it had chosen to return of its own accord. Nothing was more important than this, and nothing could make him happier.

The cat lowered its head and solemnly rubbed the nostrils on its skull against the protruding part of Anthony's head... or rather, touched noses with Anthony.

Anthony said, "Let's go back."

……

A large black dog emerged from the woods, its nose twitching and its eyes gleaming. It first looked at the giant snake's corpse beside the tree roots, then at the skeletal cat sharpening its claws on the tree bark, followed by the vengeful rat struggling to pull half of Anthony's arm onto its clothes, then at the hand trying to help the vengeful rat, and finally met Anthony's head on the ground.

"Good afternoon, Sirius," Anthony said. "Want to help with the packing?"

A black dog, as big as a bear, bared its teeth and growled at him.

“Let me make it clear beforehand, Voldemort is not a lamb chop,” Anthony said. “And there’s definitely something wrong with your Felix Felicis.”

"...Just a necromancer, Sirius. Think about those dead snakes that suddenly came to life. Really, I'm not some other magical creature skilled in mind reading and shapeshifting..."

“Don’t talk to me now, please,” Sirius said. He leaned against the tree and silently watched Anthony’s feet drag themselves toward his clothes, then he threw a bag to the ground without a word.

“The bag from the Fire Dragon Sanctuary,” Anthony said. “You know this bag is only openable by you, Sirius.”

Sirius crossed his arms and didn't answer. Anthony hesitated for a moment, then continued walking towards the clothes. If he could convince Sirius to trust him, perhaps he could help pack the clothes up and take him back to the tent…

“Remus Lupin!” Sirius suddenly exclaimed. “He knows, doesn’t he? That bastard, he knows you’re a necromancer, doesn’t he? Damn Moonface! And Dumbledore—damn it, I knew he hadn’t told me everything! What ‘expert in this kind of thing,’ ‘absolutely a master’—”

As he spoke, he picked up the bag and unsealed it: "I saw Voldemort's body. Is he dead, or did he escape again?"

As a living person, Sirius Black's ability to process everything before him was somewhat faster than Anthony had anticipated. However, he remembered that Harry or Hermione had mentioned that there were many house-elves' heads hanging in Black's old house, so perhaps Sirius Black was actually quite used to seeing a lonely head, even if those heads usually didn't talk to him.

“I think he’s just temporarily gone,” Anthony said. “He seems to have hidden something in the forest and told the snake to take good care of it. But now that the snake is dead, I guess we’re unlikely to know what it is.”

“Listen, Henry, I’m glad you’re still alive,” Sirius said thoughtfully. “But does Albania have a magic hospital? Or should I take you to St. Mungo’s?”

Anthony helped Sirius open the bag with his hand: "We can't go to St. Mungo. If I'm not mistaken, I'm some kind of escaped Silence or something."

“Let’s go back to the tent first,” Sirius said casually. “I also need to find a way to get my arm back on… Harry seemed to be looking for me on the other side of the two-way mirror.”

Anthony remembered: "That's right, they should have finished their final exams."

"Oh!" Sirius smiled. "By the way, I've already arranged for him to spend his vacation at Black's old house this year!"

“I wonder if Kerridine is cursing me behind my back,” Anthony said. “I had told her I might be able to go back and grade papers with her.”

Sirius grinned. "I'll ask Harry, maybe he knows. I guess you're not too keen on greeting him like this?"

"Indeed."

“But I’m determined to make Remus see this,” Sirius said. “When we get back, can you do it again in front of him?”

"Uh……"

“Then I’ll convince him to pack you up and send you to Mrs. Pomfrey’s. Mrs. Pomfrey will yell at him, ha!” Sirius said excitedly. “Uh, no, we should tell Mrs. Pomfrey what happened?”

“A rather serious split,” Anthony’s head said.

Sirius thought for a moment and nodded in agreement: “Quite serious.” He tossed Anthony’s severed arm into the bag.

(End of this chapter)