Chapter 54 A Clear Will
Aside from Hermione, who was unable to do anything due to her physical limitations, everyone, following Basil's words, looked at Hermione's fluffy little head.
Then they all looked at the puddle on the wall.
"Mr. Granger, I..." Professor McGonagall's face was filled with shame.
Snape looked at Harry's foolish face, wanting to make a sarcastic remark.
But looking at Basil and Hermione, the two perfect couples in his eyes, and the corpse of the troll who had almost barged into his office,
he kept his mouth shut.
Only Quirrell, the culprit who had found out about the room in the fourth-floor corridor and everything under the trapdoor, could offer an outsider's assessment.
"The children must be terrified. Let them go back first. The students are all enjoying their Halloween dinner in their houses."
Professor McGonagall nodded repeatedly, her eyes filled with concern. "Quirinus, you're right. You should go back first. By the way, for helping the school deal with the hazard and saving your classmates, Gryffindor gets 50 points!"
Snape finally couldn't help but speak up, "50 points? Mr. Granger did a good job. But entering the girls' lavatory? Although I believe it was Potter's doing, they still made a small mistake. I think we should deduct another 10 points? I mean, 5 points each for Potter and Weasley."
"We were there to deliver food!" Ron complained unwillingly.
"Who eats in the lavatory?" Snape replied without thinking.
Ron smiled, opened his pocket, revealing a pie and a bottle of pumpkin juice in a potion bottle.
He waved a half-eaten chicken leg.
Snape stared intently at the potion bottle,
speechless with anger.
He couldn't believe someone would dare use it to hold drinks!
"Enough, Severus," came Dumbledore, who stepped out from around the corner. "I don't think these kids have anything to lose."
After speaking, he winked at Basil and the other three.
Basil felt like vomiting.
But the three beside him looked on with gratitude.
Even as they climbed to the 8th floor and returned to the common room, they were still filled with gratitude towards Dumbledore.
That old fox!
If Basil hadn't been able to see everything that happened in the Headmaster's office
and knew the original plot,
he probably wouldn't have known that Dumbledore was watching and testing him from behind the scenes.
When Dumbledore appeared just now, he didn't even glance at Basil.
He even ignored the Devil's Web that wasn't afraid of light.
He showed no curiosity about the student's secrets, only utmost respect.
But in fact, it was because he already knew.
Through so-called coincidences, he exposed them to him.
However, Basil didn't have time to complain about Dumbledore now.
What he needed to do now was to review everything that had just happened.
Power that is beyond one's control and cognition is not your true power.
Just like Harry could unleash his full potential against Voldemort, but later, when he fought Snape, he couldn't even cast a complete spell.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione,
after being blocked at the door by a sixteen-foot-tall troll and witnessing Basil smash its head, had become much more familiar with each other.
They led the absent-minded Basil to the portrait of the Fat Lady.
"Pig nose,"
they said, and then crawled inside.
The common room was crowded and noisy.
Everyone was eating the food that had been served.
The three exchanged smiles and rushed to their plates,
carefully avoiding the meat dishes.
Hermione had two plates,
piling them full of food for Basil first.
While enjoying the five-star service Hermione provided, Basil engaged in a mental conversation with Riddle.
"So, I hid the Killing Curse within my basic attack? Because of the Dragon Knight's red dragon power, it didn't reveal itself? But I clearly didn't chant the spell, nor did I silently recite it. This means it wasn't a silent spell. This doesn't make sense in the logic of a spell's creation!"
"More or less. Let me give you a hint: where do spells come from?"
"Where do they come from?"
"My lord, in fact, the intention that Flitwick mentioned is the source of all spells. When your heart is filled with a floating feeling, your magical field will also carry that intention, and things around you will float; when your heart is filled with joy, your happiness will spread.
" "You mean—"
"When your heart is filled with killing intent, your magical field will also be tainted, creating corresponding phenomena. Just like the supernatural phenomena created by a young wizard before they had a wand, without the need for wands, spells, or other conventional steps."
"Then why do we still need to learn spells? Does the wand limit us?"
"No, a wand is an amplifier and a stabilizer. It stabilizes our own chaotic magical field, allowing us to grow faster. Our field and the wand's field refine and grow together with each spellcasting."
"Then why? I remember you could consciously use power even before you had a wand, right?"
"Yes. Precocious maturity stabilizes the magical field. At that point, with just a tiny bit of talent, one can create supernatural phenomena through willpower. But even I can only make rabbits hang themselves from the rafters, creating invisible shields to gain an advantage in hand-to-hand combat. But to do that requires an extremely high level of willpower. To possess the power of 'killing intent' within one's magnetic field, like you, even I can't do it."
"You can't do it either? How is that possible? Are you referring to your current age?" Basil was incredulous.
He couldn't think of anyone more skilled with the Killing Curse than Voldemort.
In the original story, it was his own Killing Curse that took Voldemort's life.
"To create phenomena without wands, spells, waving wands, or gestures, one needs an extremely clear, pure, and powerful will. Children's world is simple. Their will is relatively pure, making it easier to deviate from conventional steps and create supernatural phenomena. As for me? I was too eager for quick results. Unlike you, I didn't hone my skills in the introductory stage and directly relied on
my natural talent to forcibly learn the Killing Curse. The reason 'my' Killing Curse is so powerful is because 'I' have killed myself multiple times—split my soul to create Horcruxes, and performed near-death magical transformations." "So, my killing intent just now was so clear that it met the requirements for casting the Killing Curse without a wand or spell. So much so that in [normal attack]... wait, will Dumbledore discover this?"
"No. The Killing Curse is merely a form, a framework, of using killing intent. It attacks the health bar directly through killing intent. Your [Normal Attack] combines [Killing Intent], which directly increases damage, becoming the source of the [Dragon Knight's] fiery burst power. In fact, you can infuse this power into any spell. Just as all of Dumbledore's spells are filled with his compassionate, saintly, and noble spirit. It's just that [Killing Intent] is more suitable for offensive spells. If it's a defensive spell, it would probably be less effective."
"I know, this is what you meant by the power of ignorance. Are you admonishing me to use a spell with the corresponding, appropriate intent?"
"Not entirely. I just wanted to tell you that sometimes going slower might be better, like when you learned the Killing Curse."
"This doesn't seem like a conclusion Voldemort could draw."
"Knowledge from Salazar Slytherin's manuscripts. I just picked it up and used it in the process of teaching you."
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(End of Chapter)