Chapter 133: Soul and Body
"Quidditch is too dangerous. Every year, a few unlucky students get injured and end up in my care because of it," Madam Pomfrey muttered as she walked out.
Harry kept coughing from the Skele-Gro, so Ron gave him some water.
Ethan followed Madam Pomfrey out.
Once she reached the door and stepped away from the sickbed, Madam Pomfrey noticed Ethan was still following her. She turned and asked, "Is there something you need?"
"Yes, Madam. I have a few questions." Ethan nodded.
"Ask away." When she wasn't busy with patients, the matron was actually quite good-tempered.
"Well, Madam," Ethan said, "you mentioned earlier that you can heal a broken arm instantly. What spell do you use? Is it Ossio Dispersimus?" Ethan knew a bone-healing spell himself, but he wasn't sure if Madam Pomfrey had a better technique.
"You're quite right," the matron said, nodding with a hint of regret. "If you had been the one to treat Potter, he wouldn't have had to regrow all the bones in his arm."
Ethan feigned embarrassment as he explained, "I only know the theory; I haven't actually practiced it. I just watched Professor Lockhart cast the spell."
In reality, Ethan had practiced on small animals, though his mistakes sometimes resulted in bone deformities. He didn't want to show off; he just wanted to avoid setting the bones incorrectly and getting a flood of complaints.
Madam Pomfrey gave him a few key pointers, which helped immensely. He was confident he wouldn't make any mistakes the next time he practiced.
"Is losing bones in accidents common in the wizarding world? Why does the hospital wing stock Skele-Gro?" Ethan asked. That was his second question.
"It isn't common," Madam Pomfrey said. "This bottle of Skele-Gro has been sitting in the hospital wing for years. This is the first time we've used it. We just keep a variety of healing potions on hand."
Madam Pomfrey waved her hand dismissively. She was about to say something else when she saw a group of Gryffindors walking toward the ward.
Seeing the team members standing there with gifts for Harry, she snapped, "You aren't allowed in. Pick one representative. The patient needs his rest! He has thirty-three broken bones to heal!"
The group exchanged glances. Finally, they pushed Wood forward. He lasted only five minutes under the matron's watchful eye before she showed him the door. Hermione and Ron, who had been inside from the start, were ushered out immediately after.
Ethan still had questions, but with no chance to ask them, he followed the others out.
The Gryffindor team needed to change first, so the remaining three headed toward the Great Hall.
"Ethan, did Malfoy enchant the Bludger? Is that why it kept going after Harry?" Hermione asked, exchanging a glance with Ron.
"No. You know as well as I do that Madam Hooch had locked the Bludgers up before the game. Once the match started, none of the players had wands, so Draco couldn't have tampered with it."
Ethan looked at them like they were idiots.
Hermione blushed. Earlier, in the Hospital Wing, she'd been so focused on blaming Malfoy that she'd completely overlooked that detail.
"So, did he open the Chamber?" Hermione finally asked. She had looked up a great deal of information, even asked Professor Binns, but she had found nothing useful.
"No. When Mrs. Norris was attacked, he was in the Great Hall the entire time and never left."
Ethan glanced at Ron as he spoke. Ron blushed and turned away, hiding his expression from the others.
"Professor Binns mentioned a legend about Salazar building a secret chamber to purge the school of students he deemed unworthy. I'm exactly the kind of student he wouldn't have wanted a thousand years ago." Hermione bit her lower lip.
Ethan tried to reassure her. "Don't worry. Until everything settles down, no one can say for sure whether any of it is true."
*Ron wouldn't do something like that, would he? Then again, you can never be certain. If he were being controlled by Voldemort, his actions wouldn't be voluntary.*
In the evening, Ethan knocked on the door of Snape's office.
"Professor, I have a question about Skele-Gro."
"Skele-Gro? I assume Potter has regrown his bones." Snape sounded vaguely regretful. "Had I known, I wouldn't have sent so much of it to the Hospital Wing. What a pity."
"You brewed that yourself?" Ethan was a bit surprised.
"Get on with it." Snape seemed displeased that he hadn't been able to keep Potter suffering for a few more days.
"Professor, in a case like Harry Potter's, Skele-Gro can regrow bones quickly. So why did Professor Kettleburn never recover his limbs?"
Snape glanced at him, walked behind the desk, and gestured for Ethan to sit opposite him. "A good question. Sit down. I'll explain it to you slowly."
Snape fell silent for a moment. After deciding where to begin, he cleared his throat.
"At the start of term, you extracted that unique blood yourself. The goal was to fuse the salamander's soul, life force, and magic to create blood of the highest quality."
Ethan nodded.
"The answer to your question lies within the soul itself."
"Whether human or beast, every living thing consists of two parts: the body and the soul."
"Do plants have souls?" Ethan interrupted.
Snape glared at him, clearly annoyed by the interruption. When Ethan fell silent, showing no sign of further interruption, he replied, "No. I've never seen a plant's soul, nor does any magic indicate that plants have them."
He continued, "Now that we understand these two components, we will proceed to the next topic."
"The body is easy to observe. It hungers, thirsts, and suffers injury. You must maintain it with care to survive."
"But the soul is far more difficult to observe. Apart from the ghosts haunting this castle, it's hard for us to see other souls."
At this, Ethan thought, *If my magic goes wild again, could I see souls separated from their bodies?*
It wasn't a random guess, but a logical deduction based on his ability to see soul fragments.
In the wizarding world, physical injuries aren't considered serious. There are ways to treat them.
"Skele-Gro regenerates bone, and the Flesh-Regenerating Potion regrows flesh and blood. Used together with some spellwork, they can restore a person's limbs and organs."
"But such injuries can't be left untreated for too long, or they'll affect the soul."
Once the soul suffers that kind of damage, physical wounds become irreparable.
*Is that why Voldemort's nose never grew back? He regenerated his entire body!* Ethan thought of the noseless soul he had seen.
"Professor Kettleburn, whom you mentioned earlier, couldn't regrow his limbs with those potions because his soul was already damaged."
Ethan raised his hand.
Snape was nearly finished. He nodded, and Ethan asked, "So Kettleburn's soul was damaged because he waited too long? How long is the window for recovery?"
"Also, what about Nearly Headless Nick? Are ghosts formed by accidental death always incomplete?"
"You know something about that old professor's history. He didn't lose his limbs because physical damage slowly affected his soul. The damage manifested in his soul directly from the beginning."
"Huh?"
Over the past two years, Ethan had learned countless spells from both Hogwarts and his family's legacy. Aside from his family's innate Soul Fire, which could target ghosts, he knew of no other effective way to attack souls. Then there was the Basilisk's gaze, which could petrify them.
"Severus." Professor Kettleburn had taught him Care of Magical Creatures back when he still had all his limbs, so Snape knew him all too well.
The creature bit off several of the professor's limbs as soon as it was born. Worse still, every magical remedy proved ineffective. Dumbledore personally killed every one of the creatures and strictly ordered Professor Kettleburn never to reveal the breeding method to anyone.
"Oh."
"Fortunately, the creatures only injured the professor. Otherwise, he would likely still be locked up in Azkaban," Snape added.
He moved on to the second question. "As for the origin of ghosts, we still do not fully understand the underlying principles. Currently, only wizards are known to become ghosts after death, and many have unique traits, such as the Bloody Baron. Furthermore, certain injuries inflicted by non-magical means cannot be healed, such as beheading." Snape's words echoed those of Cyril Shafiq.
"I understand, Professor. I'd like to learn to brew Skele-Gro and the Flesh-Regenerating Potion."
Snape waved his wand, and two rolls of parchment flew from his bookshelf. "Practice on your own."
"Very well. I'll be going, Professor." Ethan tucked the two rolls of parchment into his small bag.
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