Professor Baker in the Crystal Ball

"?!"

The two of them spun around in horror, only to see the Room of Requirement looking perfectly normal, with nothing out of the ordinary to be found.

"I'm right here."

The voice sighed bitterly: "Keep walking forward, look down at your feet, at that black crystal ball..."

Only then did the two realize that in their panic, they had been so focused on Professor Benjamin Baker that they had completely forgotten about the black crystal ball that was suspected to be a Dark magic artifact!

And now, who else could this voice speaking to them be, if not Professor Benjamin Baker?

Avada and Baron drew their wands again, but they did not approach the crystal ball rolling on the floor.

"Being wary of the unknown is a good habit." Professor Benjamin Baker's voice continued with a sigh: "But I truly have no intention of doing anything to you... You must have noticed how abnormal that 'me' with a body was acting earlier, right? Actually, that one is a fake; I am the real Benjamin Baker."

"You are the real Professor Benjamin Baker?!"

Avada and Baron looked at each other—let alone Baron, even Avada, who knew of the existence of Horcruxes, found this somewhat unbelievable: a soul fragment left in the body while the main soul ends up in a Horcrux? What kind of logic was this?

Or was there some other hidden secret regarding Professor Benjamin Baker?

Filled with heavy doubts and confusion, Avada pulled Baron back a few steps and slowly moved toward the door of the Room of Requirement: "I'm sorry, Professor Benjamin Baker, your situation is too complicated. We are just two ordinary first-year students; we can neither confirm the situation nor help you with anything... We are going to find Dumbledore and have him help you!"

"Please, absolutely not!"

Professor Benjamin Baker's voice suddenly became anxious, and at the same time, the space inside the Room of Requirement twisted once more, turning back into an inescapable, invisible maze: "My current state must absolutely not be known to anyone else!"

"I can swear that I did not end up like this because I wanted to harm anyone, or as some sort of karmic retribution for doing evil... but everyone has secrets they don't want others to know, right? For instance, you, K, what did you rely on to be so certain that this crystal ball was a Dark magic artifact? Are you willing to tell others?"

Avada's brows furrowed tightly, and he stopped in his tracks.

Beside him, Baron wore a look of vigilance: "So, this crystal ball really is a Dark magic artifact?"

"That depends on how you define a Dark magic artifact."

Professor Benjamin Baker gave a bitter laugh: "If you are talking about Dark magic in the academic sense—that is, magic that requires the sacrifice of one's own mental power to use—then this crystal ball does indeed belong to the category of Dark magic, and perhaps even the darkest kind, at that..."

"But if you are like those classical wizards who believe that only magic used for evil counts as Dark magic, then please rest assured, this crystal ball has absolutely nothing to do with Dark magic."

"Hmm?"

Avada, who had been listening quietly, felt a flash of suspicion in his eyes: with the aid of his Magic Sense, he had discovered something extraordinary.

But before he could ask, Baron, standing beside him, frowned and asked again: "I don't quite understand... Professor Benjamin Baker, what exactly is going on with you?"

"As a director of the Defense Against the Dark Arts League, why would you possess a 'darkest' Dark magic artifact, and why bring it to school? What was it originally meant for?"

"Why was your body occupied by someone else? And why did you end up inside the crystal ball yourself?"

"Furthermore, you don't want others to know about this, so if we hadn't come here, what were you going to do?"

After hearing this series of questions, the black crystal ball fell silent for a long moment.

"It seems that if I don't dispel your doubts, I won't be getting your help at all." Professor Benjamin Baker sighed helplessly: "Then I will explain it to you briefly."

Avada raised an eyebrow, remaining silent, intending to hear what Professor Benjamin Baker had to say—he couldn't run away anyway.

"Let's put it this way: the 'me' inside the crystal ball now, and the person who controlled my body and walked out earlier, are both me, Benjamin Baker."

"Due to certain reasons, during my adventurous travels, my consciousness underwent a split. This split severely affected my thoughts, my control over my body, and my spellcasting ability. To solve this problem, I had to spend several years searching for a solution, and I finally arrived at a decent plan: to create a specially crafted container to absorb that split consciousness, allowing my main consciousness to fully control the body."

"And this black crystal ball in front of you is the container I crafted to carry that fragment of consciousness."

Professor Benjamin Baker's voice revealed a certain weariness: "To craft it, I had to travel everywhere collecting knowledge and magical materials—including the reason I decided to come to Hogwarts to be a professor; Hogwarts possesses the largest library in all of Britain, a Restricted Section containing a vast amount of hidden knowledge, and a secret location I learned about during my student days, which is this very place. At the time, I thought that perhaps this place could help me achieve my goal as quickly as possible..."

"As it turns out, my decision was correct. Through the library and the Restricted Section, I gained a wealth of useful knowledge and data, and the channels available to a school professor also made it easier for me to obtain rare materials... Just a few days ago, I finally finished making the container."

"So, I happily came to the Room of Requirement, prepared to complete the split in secret, and for that purpose, I even cast magic on the space in this room to prevent other students from breaking in—the very thing you encountered earlier."

"Oh, right, you probably don't know this yet, but when there is already someone in this room, unless the person outside has the same need as the person inside, the door cannot be opened..."

"That's not right?" Baron asked suspiciously: "But before we came here, we had already opened many rooms, hadn't we?"

"Let me continue."

Professor Benjamin Baker said with a bitter voice: "However, just as I began the ritual, an accident occurred: due to the excessive performance of the container I made, and some errors during the operation, my main consciousness was sucked into the container, while that fragment of consciousness remained in my body and gained control!"

Avada didn't know what expression to make—it really was a case of putting the main soul into a Horcrux!

Just how incompetent of a Dark wizard could one be to perform such an outrageous operation... no, wait, how could an incompetent Dark wizard even be capable of making a Horcrux?!

"That is also why you were able to open other rooms." Professor Benjamin Baker laughed bitterly: "Because only a complete consciousness is judged by the Room of Requirement as one person—however, my main consciousness had been locked in the container, and the consciousness fragment was not enough to be recognized, so in the judgment of the Room of Requirement, I changed from 'one person' to 'two items'."

Avada nodded secretly; that much was true—Voldemort's Horcrux had stayed in the Room of Requirement for so long, yet it hadn't stopped other students from using the room, had it?

"From now on, that 'me' controlling the body will prove what I said; you should notice that the lectures he gives will become increasingly boring, rigid, and his reactions will be much slower than before..."

"But in that case,"

Baron interrupted Professor Benjamin Baker skeptically: "After encountering something like this, shouldn't you be even more inclined to seek help from others? Why, when we were about to go find Dumbledore, did you instead choose to trap us?"

"I have already said," Professor Benjamin Baker's voice was low: "Although it won't do evil, this crystal ball is indeed a top-tier Dark magic artifact. If word got out, even with a justifiable reason, it would be enough to ruin my reputation."

"Furthermore, this crystal ball contains a vast amount of my unique techniques and some trump cards. Once it falls into the hands of others, these techniques could be analyzed, which would be a fatal hidden danger for an adventurer like me who has offended countless Dark wizards."

"It is true that I need help, but I would prefer that the fewer people involved in this matter, the better."