Psychodynamics

"That student is a natural-born dark wizard."

Voldemort remarked to Quirrell with admiration: "Without exceptional talent for the Dark Arts, outstanding intellect, and that innate desire to dominate others, such a line of thought could never be born... By the time he graduates, perhaps I can recruit him. No, once I am resurrected and have seized this castle, I can guide him personally..."

"What is his background? Which house is he in? Is he pure-blood or half-blood?"

"He, he is in Hufflepuff..."

"Hufflepuff?" Voldemort frowned—this was different from what he had imagined; none of his servants had ever come from that house of gluttons.

"As for, as for his bloodline, he is from an orphanage; no one knows his exact lineage. However, it is said that Dumbledore himself handled his enrollment procedures. If bloodline is a factor, then his heritage might not be simple," Quirrell continued, answering Voldemort's questions.

"From an orphanage, brought in by Dumbledore, powerful talent... very much like me in my youth."

Voldemort asked softly: "What is his name?"

"That, that is the problem, Master."

Quirrell replied with some confusion: "According to the student roster, his name is the incantation for the Killing Curse, that is, Avada Kedavra..."

"What?"

Voldemort was stunned for a moment, then let out a burst of harsh, uncontrollable laughter.

"Hahaha, hahahaha... Interesting, truly interesting..."

Seeing that his master seemed increasingly interested in the student, Quirrell couldn't help but offer a reminder: "Master, could this be a test from Dumbledore? After all, he is a Hufflepuff, and he was brought in by Dumbledore himself..."

"You do not understand Dumbledore."

Voldemort was in an excellent mood, so he magnanimously forgave the foolish servant's questioning and explained: "If that old man had truly discovered something, he would not let his own student risk danger so easily... Besides, he has always been prone to trusting others too easily. Since he recruited you, it means he has no suspicions about you."

"Then, what if he discovers later that this is actually dark magic and goes to report it to Dumbledore?"

"If he doesn't want to be expelled, he certainly won't do that—it is magic he researched himself; I only gave him a trivial amount of help," Voldemort laughed. "Besides... how could someone capable of conceiving such a line of thought be repulsed by the Dark Arts?"

"However, why would he be a Hufflepuff... I must test him properly the next time I see him."

Avada now had one piece of good news, one piece of bad news, and another piece of good news.

The good news was that, according to his preliminary diagnosis, the methods he held in his hands were very likely to be effective against Voldemort's wandering soul, though this was only a preliminary judgment based on limited data and could not be concluded definitively yet.

The bad news was that Voldemort had begun to pay personal attention to him... Who would have thought that a single paper could pique Voldemort's interest to such a degree?

Aren't you supposed to be very weak right now? Aren't you supposed to be lurking silently? Is it really worth the risk of exposure just for an ordinary student like me?!

He knew Voldemort had always wanted to indulge his craving for being the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, but he hadn't expected the craving to be this intense...

Moreover, if Voldemort were to personally take the wheel every time he faced Quirrell, he would have to divert most of his energy to maintaining Occlumency, which would significantly slow down the progress of analyzing Voldemort's spiritual power.

However, this brought about the third piece of good news: the excuse to get Dumbledore involved had delivered itself to his doorstep.

As soon as he finished analyzing Voldemort's spiritual power, he could run to the Headmaster's office, "panic-stricken," and tell Dumbledore that the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor had a two-holed socket face on the back of his head and had tried to teach him the Unforgivable Curses; then, he could seize the opportunity to suggest it was Voldemort, and find some excuse (like the Shafiq Family or Professor Baker) to offer up his method for controlling Voldemort's wandering soul... and he could proudly announce that the Harry Potter series had reached its finale.

As for the Basilisk, Sirius, Peter, Barty Jr., and the like, they could all be easily resolved once Voldemort himself had been completely suppressed.

'After I get back, I can try practicing the Dual Casting left behind by Professor Baker. Then I can multitask, dealing with Voldemort while analyzing him at the same time...'

Avada fantasized unrealistically as he walked toward the Restricted Section with the note he had just obtained—he intended to see what exactly Voldemort had recommended to him. According to Voldemort, that book had a deep connection to the Imperius Curse and the Confundus Charm, which were mental magics; perhaps it could be of help to him?

"Madam Pince, I would like to borrow this book."

Passing through the library silently, he arrived before the librarian, Madam Pince, and quietly handed her the note.

"Professor Quirrell's note, requesting to borrow Psychodynamics... Why would he recommend such an profound book to a second-year student?"

Madam Pince frowned and muttered to herself, waving her wand over the note for a long time before finally nodding and putting it away: "Wait a moment."

She then walked into the Restricted Section. A moment later, she returned with a book that looked perfectly ordinary, not at all like the other restricted books that looked sinister just from their covers, and handed it to Avada: "The loan period is three months. Remember to return it on time."

"Understood, thank you."

Avada thanked her softly and walked quickly out of the Restricted Section, but he did not leave the library. Instead, he wandered between the bookshelves for a while, pulling out a few more books to browse briefly before finally leaving.

'Among all the books about dangerous magical creatures, not a single one mentions that the weakness of a three-headed dog is music, even though many books contain detailed descriptions of them...'

'What is going on? Did Dumbledore remove the relevant books, or was the "music" weakness a new discovery by the magical creature master, Hagrid? After all, besides him, I doubt anyone else would have the leisure to play music for a three-headed dog...'

Walking straight past the common room and returning to the temporarily empty dormitory, Avada opened the copy of Psychodynamics and began to browse.

"Preface..."

"Since the phenomenon of 'magic' was discovered by humanity, the exploration of its principles and applications has never ceased, not even to this day. With the deepening of research, the concepts of 'magic power' and 'spiritual power' have basically become fixed: the former is the essence and source of the phenomenon of 'magic,' while the latter is the medium that triggers magic and occupies a crucial position in the composition of life..."

"From ancient times to the present, research into magic has always focused on the 'magic power' aspect. Wizards have designed various experiments and proposed various hypotheses to interpret, express, apply, and summarize the natural laws of magic power. From ancient runes and the formation patterns born in the Middle Ages to the modern rise of semiotics and 'magic functions' inspired by arithmancy and Muggle science, all have attempted to interpret the mysterious phenomenon of magic power in ways that humans can understand, such as through words and symbols..."

"However, research into spiritual power itself seems to have been gradually diluted and forgotten in this process, and mental magic is generally considered the most dangerous, leading to strict regulation of related knowledge. All these factors have caused research into spiritual power to remain at a very superficial level to this day. Even though it is but a drop in the ocean compared to the vast and mysterious 'magic power,' it is so important to wizards—it is the source of wizards' thoughts and the qualification to explore nature and magic power..."

"It is as if everyone can speak, but people often only pay attention to the content of the language and rarely care about how the tongue and mouth move while speaking. Although this research seems somewhat detached from reality at the current stage, I believe that as exploration deepens, we will sooner or later encounter 'unspeakable texts' that can only remain on paper—that is, magic that exists only in theory and cannot be released. When that time comes, we will have no choice but to refocus our attention on spiritual power..."

"Since this book is titled Psychodynamics, it naturally aims to explore the structure of spiritual power, how it is influenced by various types of magic, and how spiritual power plays a role in the process of spellcasting..."