Hogwarts: Harry Returns from Azeroth

Chapter 191, Section 190: The Unsummonable Soul and Peter's Remains
“Perhaps we can try again,” Harry suddenly said. “Why don’t we try summoning Peter’s spirit?”

A hush fell over the room; even the whispers ceased for a moment, and everyone stared at Harry in astonishment.

"Mr. Potter," said one of the members of Wizengamo, "if I remember correctly, your magic that can summon souls is called ancestral magic, and it can only summon ancestors who are related to you by blood—as far as I know, Peter Pedro probably has no blood relation to you."

“There’s a misunderstanding here, everyone,” Harry raised his voice to explain, “Shamans aren’t only limited to calling upon souls connected to them by blood. Every shaman with sufficient power can perform rituals for others.”

"So, you mean calling upon the souls of ancestors for others through blood ties?"

“Still inaccurate,” Harry shook his head and continued, “It should be said to be the souls of the dead who are related by blood, not just the souls of relatives who are of a higher generation than oneself.”

“I think I understand what you mean, Mr. Potter,” Amelia nodded. “Are you trying to use Mary Pedro’s bloodline to summon Peter’s soul? You want him to confront James Potter’s soul in court?”

“The defendant needs to be present at the trial, doesn’t he?” Harry chuckled.

“Very well,” Fudge interjected. “Then, in the name of the Minister of Magic, I grant you permission to do so, Potter.”

To be honest, Fudge's actions here were somewhat presumptuous, but Dumbledore didn't say anything and chose to acquiesce.

After receiving permission, Harry stepped forward to Mary Pedro—even though he couldn't make a sound or move his body freely, it didn't diminish the old woman's venomous gaze.

“Don’t worry, if things go well, you’ll soon be able to see your son’s spirit,” Harry said softly to the old woman after thinking for a moment.

His words made Mary's body stiffen instantly, and even her struggling movements stopped—was she going to see the soul of her dead child again?
While Mary was stunned, Harry cut the back of her hand. The wound wasn't deep; he only took a few drops of blood and then used a healing charm to restore it.

"Will this summoning harm the person involved, Mr. Potter?" one wizard couldn't help but ask, noticing his actions.

“If we don’t count the blood-drawing step, then there won’t be any harm,” Harry thought for a moment and then added, “but there’s also the possibility of psychological harm after hearing what the summoned spirit says.”

“Psychological harm doesn’t count as harm,” the wizard chuckled easily.

“That’s hard to say,” Harry said, shaking his head.

Harry smeared some of the blood he had obtained from Mary Pedro onto another ancestral totem, and dripped the rest into a stone bowl filled with water. Under the eerie gazes of many wizards, Harry lit a bonfire in the center of the trial chamber, muttering incantations to himself.

Finally, with a long shout, he plunged the totem into the floor.

The familiar pale blue light, the familiar translucent body, but what appeared in this aura of soul was not a young soul, but an old man with a full beard.

"Who is this?" Sirius asked in surprise. "Peter doesn't look like this."

Harry turned around and waved his wand, releasing the silencing spell from Mary.

"Father?!"

The voice wasn't loud, but the words Mary uttered were clearly audible to everyone in the courtroom.

Harry placed his hand on the totem again, and as he poured his magic into it, a faint blue light visibly appeared in his eyes. Meanwhile, new souls kept appearing around Mary, curiously observing their surroundings, some of them already greeting the people in the stands.

"Mother...Grandpa...Grandma..."

Mary Pedrue kept reciting her family tree, and in the end, Harry simply pulled out the totem and threw it back on the ground.

After losing the totem as a medium, the eerie blue aura of souls gradually dissipated, drifting away from the world of the living. The souls that reappeared in the world using Mary's blood as a catalyst also disappeared quickly after saying only a few words.

"What... what does this mean?" Having witnessed the bizarre scene of numerous ghosts reappearing, Fudge couldn't help but stammer, "Where are they? I mean—weren't they just greeting us? Why don't we see Peter Pedro? Where is his soul?"

“They are not evidence, Mr. Minister, so I sent them away,” Harry replied calmly. “As for Peter’s soul… I know what I’m about to say is unbelievable, but it’s the truth—Peter is not dead, which is why I cannot invoke his soul through his mother’s blood.”

Harry wasn't surprised at all by this, or rather, in today's courtroom, he was merely using Peter's mother's blood to confirm it.

It should be true, Ron's unusual pet mouse, Scabbers—it is Peter Pettigrew.

It was because Harry demonstrated his ability to summon the spirits of his ancestors and the truth of the Sirius Black case was reported in the newspapers that Peter fled Ron's side and went to hide deep in the Forbidden Forest... because he was well aware of the limitations of Harry's divination abilities.

Harry received a definite answer, but the courtroom outside was filled with all sorts of noise. The wizards in the stands were shocked by the information in his words, and Dumbledore had to ring the bell again to barely quiet them down.

“Can I understand it this way, Mr. Potter?” Dumbledore asked seriously, staring at Harry’s figure, “You mean that the reason you couldn’t summon Peter Pedro’s soul is because he is still alive in this world? Not a ghost?”

“That’s right,” Harry nodded. “Following the Pedro family bloodline, I have summoned the souls of Mary’s father and her grandparents, but even so, I still couldn’t draw his soul out of the illusion. There is only one explanation: he is still alive.”

“But how is that possible?!” a member of the Wizengamot exclaimed. “We all know Peter is dead. His body only has one finger left.” “That just means we thought he was dead,” someone nearby immediately retorted. “Didn’t Sirius already say that Peter Pedro used magic to create an explosion, trying to take him down with him? Sirius himself was even knocked unconscious by the blast. When he woke up, he only found Peter’s wand and one finger. He didn’t actually see Peter’s body.”

"That's just what he said... But things are indeed a bit strange. If it was an explosion powerful enough to destroy the entire street and twelve Muggles, why is Peter left with only one finger, and his wand hasn't even broken off?"

"Director Crouch," a member of the Wizengamot asked directly, "Do you remember Peter Pedro's only remaining finger? Is it still preserved?"

“Peter’s finger… I don’t remember.” It had been so long, Crouch looked somewhat bewildered. “But it should still be kept in the evidence room of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.”

"Very good, quickly send someone to get it," Fudge ordered hastily.

So the Auror hurriedly ran out of the trial room. It would take some time for the evidence to arrive, and the members of Wizengamor and the jury inside the trial room discussed the matter more and more enthusiastically.

Who would have thought that such an unexpected situation would occur even though the case had progressed this far? If what Harry said is true, and Peter Pedro is really still alive, then why doesn't he show himself?

Why does someone with the honor of a hero hide in the magical world under an assumed name?

"Mr. Potter," the members of Wizengamo kept asking, "how can we be sure that you're not deliberately not summoning Peter Pedro's soul? I mean—everything you've demonstrated is based on the unique abilities of a shaman, and you're the only one here who possesses such abilities."

"This means that everything is defined by you, and we have no way of verifying whether what you say is true or false."

"What did you say?!" Before Harry could even speak, Sirius Black was already furious. "You mean Harry is lying?!"

"Quiet, Sirius," Harry said sternly as he turned around. His imposing manner was so strong that Sirius was completely stunned and forgot to vent his anger.

“This question is easy to answer.” After suppressing Sirius to prevent him from having an attack, Harry turned around and said seriously, “First, shamans call back the souls of their ancestors in order of bloodline and chronological order. We can see that the first soul that appears is Mary Pedro’s father—and if Peter is already dead, then the first soul we see will only be his.”

"Secondly, according to the agreement I reached with Minister Fudge, in the future, I will train a group of members for the Ministry of Magic who have mastered the abilities of shamans. You can go to them at any time to verify whether what I said is true or false."

"Third, please believe me, I hate Peter Pedro more than you do—I want to see his soul appear even more than you do—as far as I know, the Ministry of Magic currently has no laws protecting the souls of sinners."

"And lastly, and most importantly—even without the appearance of Peter's soul, the existing evidence is sufficient to prove Sirius's innocence and Peter's guilt, so I have no need to lie."

Perhaps Harry's words were too menacing, because for several seconds after he finished speaking, no one asked him any questions, and no one dared to ask him what he intended to do to the souls of the sinners. Even the discussions in the entire trial room quieted down considerably.

"...Impressive, right?" James quietly landed next to Sirius, nudged him with his shoulder, and winked, saying, "Harry's got presence, doesn't he? Cool, right?"

“He’s way more handsome than you,” Sirius grinned. He replied in a low voice, “If you and him switched places, I bet you’d be as polite as a Slytherin.”

"Damn it, I think you've lost your mind from the heat!"

With a deliberately stern face, James began to move in and out of Sirius's body, until Sirius was so cold that he begged for mercy repeatedly.

After overcoming a certain inner conflict, these two good friends were no different from their former selves, even joking and laughing in such a serious courtroom.

Not long after, the Auror who had been sent out to collect evidence walked in with a serious expression, holding a small black box.

The box, labeled "Peter Pedro's Last Relics," was opened, and Dumbledore said solemnly, "Please take a look, everyone."

Without passing it around, Dumbledore simply tapped the box with his wand, and the next moment, a layer of white mist appeared on the ceiling of the trial chamber, revealing the box and its contents to everyone.

A plump, fleshy finger, as if it had just been detached from the body, has maintained its original shape even after twelve years, thanks to the magic, without drying out or decaying.

Harry glanced at Mary, but the old woman didn't even look up at her son's finger. Instead, she stared blankly at the ground, muttering something to herself—she had been like this ever since Harry said that Peter wasn't dead.

A mixture of surprise and ecstasy, disbelief.

“There’s definitely something wrong.” Amelia stared seriously at the finger that Dumbledore was showing off from every angle above her head. “Chief Crouch, you’ve really failed in your duty—don’t you think the cut surface of this finger is too smooth?”

"According to what we originally knew, Peter Pettigrew died in an explosion and his body was never found. So here's the question: an explosion that destroyed the entire street was so powerful that we couldn't even find any of Peter's remaining remains. All we found at the scene was this finger and his wand."

"Despite such an explosion, Peter's fingers showed no signs of charring, and the cut surface of the wound was very smooth—in my experience, such wounds are more likely to occur from the cutting of a sharp weapon or a curse."

Faced with the truth, Amelia spoke without any regard for her colleague's feelings, and Crouch's face grew increasingly pale.

“I believe that with the case having reached this point, the truth is quite clear,” Amelia said, looking at Dumbledore at the head of the table, “unless there is any other evidence to present.”

(End of this chapter)