"Professor Dumbledore."
Before Dumbledore could even come closer, Avada had already spoken first in a still-hoarse voice, offering a greeting while doing his best to prop himself up, trying to sit upright. He looked every bit like someone who had only just recovered from a major illness.
"I'm very glad you've finally woken up, Mr. Ken."
Dumbledore quickened his pace slightly. At the same time, he gestured for Avada not to force himself into sitting up and gave him a gentle smile.
"You seem to be in fairly good condition. You can even cast without a wand already?"
"Barely, Professor."
Avada gave a bitter smile.
Even though the stiffness had already faded, he still felt as though all the muscles in his body had turned limp and weak, probably from having atrophied over the past four months. Right now, even waving his arms a few times made him feel obvious fatigue, let alone using magic that required complicated wand movements. It was only because his spiritual power was especially resilient and his understanding of magic was fairly good that he could barely manage something like casting directly with his mind...
"You may find it hard to believe,"
Dumbledore let his smile fade slightly as he walked to a chair by Avada's bedside and sat down, looking at him.
"But you truly have been unconscious for a full four months. It is now the end of summer vacation. Before school broke up, your friends came to visit you quite often..."
"I can more or less guess that, Professor."
Avada nodded weakly.
"I did try looking out the window. I remember that when I first fell unconscious, the snow hadn't even fully melted yet."
"As long as you can accept it."
Only then did Dumbledore seem to let out a breath of relief.
"Clearly, this unfortunate bout of unconsciousness caused you to miss nearly the entire latter half of Hogwarts' school year, as well as the soul experiment I organized. But you needn't feel too downhearted. I didn't leave your name out of the final paper I published. After all, you were the one who provided the method for transferring that potion into a proper laboratory, and the scholars I invited were all quite grateful to you after learning that. Compared to a damp cave surrounded by Inferi, they much preferred a spacious, spotless, fully equipped large laboratory."
"Oh, right, speaking of souls,"
he added, suddenly looking as though he had just remembered something.
"I must ask you this, Mr. Ken—do you know why it was that you remained unconscious for so long this time?"
"You told me before you collapsed that you were trying to find a way to separate the soul fragments from Horcruxes. You didn't rashly conduct some dangerous soul experiment, did you?"
"No, Professor."
Avada finally could not help laughing.
"That's actually exactly what I most wanted to tell you. The reason I was unconscious for so long is that the prophetic gift I once thought had disappeared was triggered again."
"Prophecy?"
Dumbledore gave a start.
"So during the time your body was unconscious, your consciousness was not dormant?"
"That's right."
Avada nodded.
"My consciousness remained wandering within the timeline the whole time. In my own perception, not much time had passed at all—at most only a few days. During those few days, I vaguely saw quite a few fragments of the future, but that wasn't even the biggest gain. My greatest gain was..."
He deliberately paused, wearing a mysterious smile, and then slowly began listing a large number of magical materials, along with many incantations of unclear purpose. All of them were now jumbled together in a disorderly way, making it impossible to understand what they meant. Even the greatest master of magical learning would probably only think it was the ravings of a madman.
And yet, as he continued speaking, Dumbledore's eyes grew wider and wider. His expression gradually shifted from surprise, to shock, and then to outright horror, until even every one of his beard hairs seemed to be trembling...
"This is..."
By the time Avada finally finished reciting that seemingly meaningless content, Dumbledore was already wearing the expression of someone who had just seen a ghost.
"The method for making that basin of potion?!"
"You weren't even involved in the later experiments, were you? And why is the formula you just gave more complete than what we've managed to research so far?! Wait... was this what you saw in your prophecy?!"
"You witnessed the entire future process of us fully deciphering that potion?"
"Not just that, Professor."
Avada's lips kept curling upward.
"I think if you give me at most another month or two, I'll be able to completely work out a method for separating soul fragments and send Voldemort and all of his Horcruxes off together."
"..."
Dumbledore said nothing for a long while.
"So that means,"
he finally managed after an unknown period of silence,
"that through this prophecy, you obtained a great deal of knowledge related to the soul in advance—some of it even beyond the level our research has reached over these past four months. Is that correct?"
"Mm."
Avada nodded.
In the end, he still had not told Dumbledore that he could already handcraft the Deathly Hallows.
And judging from Dumbledore's reaction, he felt even more strongly that not telling him his true level had been the correct choice. This time, he had only revealed the complete method for making that basin of potion, and Dumbledore had already been frightened almost as badly as Grindelwald had been.
If he told him he could handcraft the Deathly Hallows too...
Avada was honestly afraid Dumbledore might faint on the spot.
And fainting would actually be the better outcome. If Dumbledore learned that Avada had the ability to manufacture, on-site, the Resurrection Stone he had always longed for, there was no telling what his reaction might be. For all anyone knew, after term started, the entire school might be stunned to discover that Headmaster Albus Dumbledore had quietly resigned and devoted himself wholly to research...
"...Your gains over these four months are greater than anyone else's."
After another long silence, that was all Dumbledore could finally force out.
"However, Professor, aside from knowledge of the soul, I also saw some other things in those future fragments."
This time, Avada was the one who took the initiative to break the silence.
"I vaguely saw that this year, you would be standing with a very tall lady and another man in front of a giant cup burning with flames... Do you have any idea what that might be?"
"Ah, that."
Dumbledore seemed to stop dwelling on the soul-related topic as well, and the gentle smile returned to his face.
"I'm sorry, but I can't tell you about that yet. I've signed a special confidentiality agreement... But I promise you, it will be a wonderful surprise."
"A wonderful surprise?"
Avada deliberately repeated the phrase.
"That's right. A surprise. And in my view, there's a very good chance you'll be involved in it as well... No, not a very good chance. It's practically certain."
"I can be involved too?"
This time, Avada was genuinely surprised.
"So it's not just something concerning you and those other two?"
—Did this mean the Triwizard Tournament no longer had an age restriction this time? What kind of situation was that supposed to be??
And besides, next year he was supposed to be facing one of the most important exams of his student life, his O.W.L.s. Could he really take part in something like the Triwizard Tournament, which would eat up more than half a year of time???
"Of course not, not just..."
Dumbledore smiled and shook his head as he stood up, summoning a huge parcel from another room with a wave of his hand.
"I'll leave the specific details to be announced all together at the opening feast. What you need most right now is proper rest. These are the gifts your friends sent while you were unconscious, and your wand is in there as well... I won't disturb you any longer. A house-elf will be coming shortly to bring you some potions."
Before Avada could press him any further, Dumbledore had already left the ward, leaving Avada behind with a thoroughly puzzled expression...
"Oh, my wand."
He spotted his long-lost wand at a glance inside the large bundle and immediately pulled it out, savoring the familiar feel of it as it pressed into his palm and sent its sensation straight into his mind...
"Wait, why is the Trace back on it again?!"
(End of Chapter)