The Collapse of the Horcrux Theory Building

"First, I can confirm that the 'other me' does not know about me or the existence of this crystal ball. I deliberately shielded that fragment of consciousness while crafting the crystal ball, so he has no memories of this aspect. This is a natural information gap."

"However, apart from that, he possesses almost all of my memories and personality. But because it is merely a fragment, his mental power is far weaker than mine, the original. This makes him sluggish when accessing these memories, clumsy when controlling the body, and even more so when casting spells. Therefore, his combat capability is likely not even on par with an average Auror."

"What you need to do is help me set up a magic ritual in this room to extract consciousness, then lure the other me here, defeat him, render him unable to resist, and finally use the previously prepared magic to allow me to return to my body."

Avada was somewhat surprised: after suffering such severe weakening, Professor Baker's body still possessed the combat level of an Auror—one should never look down on an Auror because of someone like Dawlish. They were the most battle-hardened and resilient wizards selected through the strictest screening, truly high-end combat power in the wizarding world!

"You might think it absurd for two first-year wizards to defeat an Auror, but that is not the case."

Professor Baker continued, "His vigilance toward you is practically zero, and I know all his combat habits and weaknesses. Furthermore, we have the advantage of preparation, we can set up various traps in advance, and we have the assistance of this Spatial Magic that I control... given your levels, defeating him should be absolutely no problem."

"At the same time, outside of the time spent setting up the magic, I will personally teach you combat, as well as some techniques specifically targeting my own style and weaknesses... you must keep these techniques secret; they concern my life."

"No problem."

Avada and Baron nodded simultaneously.

"Very good." Professor Baker tried to nod, but realizing he had no body, he could only helplessly continue, "Then next, I will first teach you how to set up the consciousness extraction magic. It might be a bit difficult for you, and there is a large amount of magic material that you will need to collect... just setting up this one magic will likely take until February or March."

"But that works out well; such ample time is enough for you to properly train your combat skills."

"Then let's start now... er, did you bring notebooks?"

"..."

Avada and Baron exchanged glances, and after confirming each other's thoughts, they shook their heads together—they had only come to sign the contract; they never imagined Professor Baker's progress would be this fast.

"...Fine, then we'll start tomorrow."

Professor Baker said helplessly, "You can come at any time to receive my instruction, but try to be discreet and don't let others notice anything unusual. Also, it's best if you both come together; otherwise, explaining the same content twice is a waste of time."

"Alright, that's it for today. Remember to bring notebooks and pens when you come tomorrow; the content I'm going to teach is far more complex than first-year coursework. It's fortunate that those lessons aren't much pressure for you..."

As the Black Crystal Ball returned to silence, Avada and Baron left the Room of Requirement.

"When should we come tomorrow?"

While walking down the stairs, Avada looked at Baron.

"Let's do it after dinner."

Baron thought for a moment before replying, "In the future, after we finish eating, let's not meet up first; let's head to the Room of Requirement separately to reduce the chance of being noticed. And if one of us has Astronomy, the other can go find Professor Baker and tell him that day's session is canceled. Anyway, there are only two Astronomy classes a week, so it won't affect progress much."

"As for the weekends..."

Avada followed Baron's line of thought, "We can't spend the entire weekend in the Room of Requirement either; we must set aside some time to stay in our own house, otherwise it's easy to be discovered, not to mention our Hufflepuff tradition of picnics..."

"Then we'll go on Saturday night, and on Sunday we can stay for half a day—as for whether it's morning or afternoon, we'll decide on Saturday."

Baron clapped his hands, and together with Avada, they finalized the plan.

"By the way, I've been meaning to ask, what's the deal with your name?"

With the immediate worries resolved, Baron's mind became active again, and somehow he remembered the real name of Avada that Professor Baker's "consciousness fragment" had uttered during Christmas.

"..."

Avada's face turned green, and he instinctively wanted to avoid the question, but he understood in his heart that if someone only knew his real name but not the meaning behind it, it could lead to a huge mess in the future—for example, when someone cast the Killing Curse at him, he might be pleasantly surprised before dying, thinking, "You know Avada too?"

Besides, Baron was a friend who had shared hardships with him; there was nothing to hide about this matter.

"Unforgivable Curses, ever heard of them?"

"Heard of them, sure. Cruciatus Curse, Imperius Curse, and the Killing Curse, right?"

"My name is the incantation for the Killing Curse."

"...Ah?"

Avada sighed and recounted the Department of Mysteries' ridiculous operation to Baron. Baron's expression shifted constantly as he listened, and in the end, he didn't know what to say.

"...Good luck."

In the end, he could only silently pat Avada on the shoulder, leaving behind that sentence—which was unclear whether it was encouragement or condolences—before parting ways with Avada and heading toward the Slytherin common room.

Avada watched Baron's back gradually disappear from sight, his footsteps pausing. He took a step toward the upward staircase, then stopped again.

Ultimately, he shook his head to himself and walked silently toward the direction of the Hufflepuff common room.

He had considered returning to the Room of Requirement after Baron left to go straight to Professor Baker, clarify the matter of the Horcrux, and ask for the truth—after all, with the contract binding them, Professor Baker couldn't do anything to him, at most he would be shocked by how a first-year wizard knew about such top-tier Dark Magic.

After all, in this regard, Professor Baker had brought him too many doubts.

In his understanding, so-called "soul" should refer to a person's mental power. And in the study of mental power, Avada could at least count as an expert—if nothing else, just based on his talent optimization technology, he could earn an Order of Merlin, First Class.

But even so, he had never discovered any structure in mental power that could lead to "splitting upon killing." At first, he even thought that perhaps after the mind was eroded by Dark Magic, relevant structures might form, leading to the inference that "only the most evil dark wizards, whose souls are completely eroded by Dark Magic, are qualified to split their souls through killing."

However, Professor Baker shattered this viewpoint: his mental power did indeed show traces of being eroded by Dark Magic, but it also lacked the structure Avada had envisioned.

Although Professor Baker's mental power wasn't severely eroded by Dark Magic—nowhere near the level of "complete erosion"—he had undeniably completed the soul split and created a Horcrux. And since one person could create multiple Horcruxes, logically, the "splitting structure" in the mental power shouldn't disappear after the split is completed!

Various phenomena pointed to one fact: the creation of a Horcrux—at least the splitting of the soul—might not be as simple as Avada imagined.

What is the relationship between "killing" and "splitting"? Under what conditions can a soul be split? What is the principle behind it?

Why would there be a magical void in the center of mental power? And why would the mental power split the magical void along with it when it divides?

If Professor Baker were truly willing to answer him, Avada would not only gain a wealth of important knowledge about Horcruxes, but his understanding of mental power and the research progress on Horcruxes would skyrocket at an astonishing speed. He could also further confirm the reason and process behind Professor Baker's creation of Horcruxes—if the condition for splitting a soul was truly only "killing" and had no requirements for the soul itself, then Professor Baker creating a Horcrux wouldn't really be a big problem.

He was a famous dark wizard hunter, after all; if he used a few heinous villains as sacrifices to create Horcruxes, he would actually be contributing to the wizarding society.

And even if he weren't willing to answer, it wouldn't affect him; he himself didn't want the matter of the Horcrux to be exposed, so how could he reveal to others that Avada knew about it?

However, after careful weighing, he abandoned this seemingly tempting idea.

Letting others know that he was interested in Horcruxes was, in the end, too imprudent.