Harry Potter: I started checking in from Diagon Alley

Sirius's first reaction was that this was too outrageous, but then he thought about it again and realized that it wasn't impossible.

Kreacher had always disliked Sirius Black. Compared to Sirius, he would much rather serve the mistress in his eyes, Sirius's mother, even though it was just a portrait.

Kreacher is very good at setting standards for himself.

He could have taken the words in the portrait as an order to himself and thus urged himself to carry it out.

In fact, that's what Kreacher has been doing for over a decade.

Sirius turned to Kreacher and said sternly, "Kreacher, I order you not to reveal what you saw and heard today to anyone."

Eric cautioned, “Don’t emphasize people or other objects. If he wants to, he will try to misinterpret your intentions and interpret your words in his own way to find loopholes. That’s how he just interpreted me. For example, if you command him like that, he could talk to himself about what happened today. If someone overhears him, it wouldn’t count as him revealing it voluntarily.”

Upon hearing this, Kreacher paused in his crying, clearly terrified.

“Alright, Kreacher, you are not allowed to think about or express in any form what you have seen or heard today,” Sirius added. “Do you hear me?”

Kreacher said in a trembling voice, "Kreacher won't... This is Young Master Regulus's order, Kreacher won't disobey Young Master Regulus's order."

"What orders from Regulus? What did he order you to do?" Sirius asked, puzzled.

Kreacher said, "Mr. Eric is a friend of Master Regulus, and Kreacher is also a friend of Mr. Eric... Kreacher will not betray Mr. Eric."

"You two have only known each other for a short time, yet you seem quite close," Sirius said, looking at Eric with surprise.

Eric smiled and shook his head without saying a word.

Sirius, unaware of what was going on, walked out of the living room with Eric and went upstairs.

They randomly found an empty room on the third floor.

This place was originally used as guest rooms.

However, due to the lack of visitors for a long time, it is now covered with dust and cobwebs.

The cabinet in the room was rattling loudly; there was likely a Boggart hiding inside.

Sirius took out his wand and began to clear out a small space where a person could stand, arranging tables and chairs.

Eric took out the locket from earlier and placed it on the table.

"This is..." Sirius asked.

Eric laughed and said, "That's right, this is Voldemort's Horcrux."

Chapter 159 Two Sides

Sirius Black, seeing a Horcrux for the first time, visibly became somewhat nervous.

“It looks like an ordinary locket,” Sirius said.

Eric did not answer him, but instead took out a thin book wrapped in parchment from his pocket.

"Would you mind if I stayed in this room for a while?" Eric asked. "I'd like to take a good look at this locket; it's a rare opportunity."

"I told you, you can do whatever you want in this house."

Eric nodded, opened the book he had just taken out to a page, and placed it on the table.

On the page Eric opened, there were no words, only a drawing of a box-like pattern.

Eric took out his wand, tapped it on a page of the book, and said, "Illusion returns, soul reverses."

The next moment, the pages of the book suddenly emitted a bright light, so bright that Sirius couldn't open his eyes.

When Sirius regained his sight, he found an ordinary-looking suitcase next to Eric, and the pages of the book were already empty.

Sirius looked at the suitcase and asked, "Is this your suitcase?"

“Yes,” Eric replied. “This book is a special magical item that Nico gave me. It can store and retrieve certain items, as you just saw, but it cannot contain living objects.”

Sirius asked, "Where's the Dementor in the box?"

“Dementors are not living beings,” Eric laughed.

[An Essential Guide for Alchemists on the Go]

This book has thirty-six pages, each capable of storing personal belongings occupying approximately one square meter of space, provided they are not living beings; any object exhibiting any signs of life cannot enter this book.

If the item inscribed into the pages contains a space-expanding spell or other spell that allows it to extend beyond the page, then the number of pages it occupies will increase accordingly.

[Simply input magic power and place the item on the page of the book to automatically imprint it. The spell to retrieve the item later is: Illusion Returns to Soul.]

[If you accidentally recite the incantation to retrieve an item on a blank page, it would be a terrifying mistake you absolutely don't want to see...]

Eric turned to the next page and took out a set of alchemical utensils, several quills, and some props for casting spells.

Sirius stared in disbelief and asked, "You know alchemy?"

“Just a superficial understanding; they’re only supplementary,” Eric replied, then stopped paying attention to Sirius and focused on preparing for his own tasks.

Sirius asked, "Will my staying here affect you?"

“No,” Eric said, “but you might get bored.”

Eric is right.

What Eric did next left Sirius completely bewildered.

He saw Eric take some of the materials he had brought and put them into a vessel for distillation and extraction, including some operations that Sirius couldn't understand at all.

Eric then dipped a quill into the prepared alchemical material and skillfully drew a pattern around the locket, along with some ancient runes.

When they were put together, Sirius couldn't understand them at all.

After staring at it for a long time, Sirius even felt a bit dizzy.

After Eric finished the preliminary arrangements, he took out another stack of recording tools and placed them aside, including a booklet, an automatic writing quill, and some small glass bottles for storing samples.

Eric closed his eyes, picked up his wand, stood in front of the coffee table, and softly chanted the spell.

The incantation he uttered sounded extremely harsh, obscure, and difficult to understand to Sirius. Sirius didn't even know what language Eric was using.

However, as Eric moved, the pattern in front of him began to change.

The pattern Eric had just drawn and the ancient runes emitted a faint glow, which eventually focused on the pendant box in the center of the pattern.

The light lingered on the locket for a while, then gradually condensed, eventually rising to the top of the locket and forming a small point of light.

Bright lights kept appearing from the locket, then converging and merging into the light spot above.

This is a magic that observes the soul.

Meanwhile, Eric quickly scribbled down the data he had obtained in the booklet with a quill pen.

Sirius watched all this from the side, seemingly wanting to say something but holding back.

Eric glanced at him and chuckled, "Go ahead and ask. It won't bother me now. I don't even know how long this process will take."

"...How can I destroy a Horcrux?"

Eric thought for a moment and said, "Theoretically speaking, Horcruxes contain a part of a wizard's soul, and it is impossible to completely destroy them using conventional methods. This is because there is a very important principle involved: the power of the soul cannot be destroyed, it can only be transferred."

Sirius didn't quite understand: "What does 'cannot be destroyed' mean?"

“Let me give you two examples. First, there are the ghosts in Hogwarts. The origin of ghosts is relatively clear. If a wizard has excessive obsessions before death, then he may become a ghost, continuing to exist in reality in this painful and struggling form. The key here is that the wizard himself does not accept his own death,” Eric said. “At this time, the ghost is simply a spiritual force. You can't use spells on it; you can't hit them unless they want to, or the magic that sustains their existence is exhausted. Otherwise, they will not disappear.”

Sirius nodded: "Another example?"

Eric prompted, "Dementors."

"...Dementors?"

“Dementors have a well-known trait: they cannot be destroyed,” Eric said. “You cannot kill a Dementor by any means, including the Death Curse, because according to previous research, they have no soul, and soulless inanimate objects are naturally unaffected by the Death Curse.”

Sirius said, "Are you trying to say that Dementors are similar to ghosts? They are not affected by spells, which is a bit far-fetched."

Eric laughed and said, "You've found the key to the problem. It's true that Dementors don't have souls, but they also can't be completely destroyed. In fact, these two conclusions are not contradictory, because Dementors are just a part of the power of the soul, or rather, they are essentially just a special form of the soul, a projection of the soul onto reality."

Eric said, "The fundamental reason why wizards can use magic and are different from Muggles is that the nature of their souls is different. A wizard's soul is more solid and active, while a Muggle's soul is like a lifeless lump of dead matter."

"You mean, Dementors are essentially souls too?" Sirius shook his head. "That doesn't make sense, because the Death Curse is magic that directly targets the soul. If your theory is true, then the Death Curse should be able to kill Dementors."

Eric said, "No, you're overlooking something. The target of the Death Curse isn't the soul, but life itself. Simply existing in the form of a soul is not the same as life. The Death Curse destroys life; the disappearance of the soul is merely a byproduct of the disappearance of life."

Eric said, “When a wizard is struck by the Death Curse, his life force disappears and his soul disintegrates because the soul has not left his body. In other words, whether actively or passively, the wizard accepts his death, so he dies. As for those wizards who become ghosts, they all have one thing in common.”

"What is it?" Sirius asked.

“The cause of their deaths, without exception, was not the Death Curse,” Eric said. “When a person is struck by the Death Curse, there is nowhere to escape. Life and soul disintegrate together, and there is only death. There is no possibility of becoming a ghost.”

Eric said, "That's why Dementors can't be killed. They're not soulless; they are the power of the soul itself, just not in a life form. If the Death Curse can't kill ghosts, then it can't kill Dementors either."

Sirius's expression turned serious, and he nodded, saying, "I cannot refute this."

Eric said, "The important part is what follows. According to Nico and my findings, the power of the soul can be roughly divided into two parts, which you can abstractly understand as the two sides of the same coin that constitute the soul."

After saying that, Eric opened Falco's travel suitcase that he had just taken out and released the Dementor that he had captured almost a year ago.

Sirius was startled by the sudden appearance of the Dementors and had to turn his head away, trying his best to resist their influence.

The Dementors have now fully regained their form, and the head that Eric's Patronus had eaten has grown back.

Upon seeing Eric, the Dementor was startled, but before it could make a move, Eric used Polymorph to subdue it, as if it were inside a box.

The Dementor was firmly pinned to the ground, unable to move.

“Dementors represent the dark side of soul power,” Eric said, pointing at the Dementors.

“And this represents the positive aspect of soul power.” Eric tapped his wand, summoning his guardian spirit.

A pure white guardian spirit appeared beside Eric, floating lightly in the air.

Chapter 160 Eric's Speculation

After the demonstration, Eric casually used magic to move a large cabinet in the room, bound the Dementors, and stuffed them inside.

“Next time, you can just say it directly. There’s no need to release it. I’ll understand.” Sirius said, his face pale.

Eric explained, "I'm not trying to make you uncomfortable; we just need to use it for the experiment."

"So you mean that the essence of soul power is actually Dementors and Patrons?" Sirius asked.

Eric shook his head: "This is just a rather abstract analogy, just to make it easier for you to understand. There are actually many other factors involved."