23

"I must be insane to agree to a request like this!"

"Could you really bear to watch me die before I turned ten? If that happened, I'd only have two years left!" Sherlock lay sprawled on the grass, drenched in sweat, his limbs limp and soft like a jellyfish.

Nearby, Oster and two female nurses from St. Mungo's diligently took notes. The two young, pretty nurses had only graduated from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry this year. Seeing that the Spell Prince, whom they had often heard about even while at school, was secretly training at St. Mungo's—and that they were allowed to observe and record it up close—left the two girls thrilled.

But seeing Sherlock so exhausted, they could not help feeling sorry for the child. Their maternal instincts made them want to pull the adorable platinum-haired boy into their arms and shower him with affection.

"I think the Obscurus is the one suffering by parasitizing your body! Besides, it's not as though no Obscurial has ever lived past ten. I met one in New York!"

"Of course. I also know you fought it. Why else would I have asked you to come?"

Sherlock sat up from the grass. The old man before him was the famous Mr. Newt Scamander, author of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, recipient of the Second Class Order of Merlin, and the writer of more than just Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

The first-year textbook Defense Against Dark Creatures had also been written by Mr. Newt.

Though the gentleman was now over seventy, he had been a mischievous troublemaker in his youth. Unfortunately, he had not graduated from Hogwarts, though he had always insisted that he was part of Hufflepuff House. Newt Scamander even had a famous older brother who had performed many great deeds during the First World War, though his brother had married a woman from the Lestrange Family—Newt's first love.

Yet it was precisely because of that that, during the chaos in New York with Grindelwald, he had met his current wife—the woman he loved most in his life—who had once been an Auror for the Magical Congress of the United States.

Although Newt was now a white-haired old man, he and Sherlock had a very good relationship. They had exchanged many letters, though this was their first time meeting at St. Mungo's.

Even though it was their first meeting, their instant rapport, like that between old friends, made them the best of friends at once.

When Sherlock had first invented Scarless Healing, Newt had discovered that this powerful healing spell worked exceptionally well on some of the magical creatures he raised—and it healed them completely.

Newt had therefore written Sherlock a letter of thanks, thanking him for his contribution to the wizarding world and for his willingness to make such an excellent spell public.

When the second spell, Whispering Word Spirit, came along, Newt had nearly died of joy.

According to his wife, it was as if Newt had suddenly returned to his passionate youth. Every day, he babbled away with a group of animals and spread gossip, making himself utterly unbearable—just like an elderly old lady.

The third spell, Springing Life, could heal plants and bring withered wood back to life. It also delighted Newt, because it was useful to him as well, allowing him to prepare special feed and medicinal ingredients for certain magical creatures.

Thus, after years of gratitude and admiration, when Newt received Sherlock's letter inviting him to St. Mungo's to help, he packed his things and headed there alone without a moment's hesitation.

He left his wife behind to help care for the animals.

After arriving at St. Mungo's and hearing Oster personally confirm that Sherlock had been diagnosed as an Obscurial formed by the enormous amount of magic within him, Newt felt as though he had been led to the gallows.

He could not understand why such an exceptional child would be unable to live past the age of ten.

When Sherlock personally explained some of his ideas—for instance, his belief that an Obscurus was merely an impassable deadlock caused by suppressed magic, and that it was simply a form of magical power inclined toward the dark—

Sherlock even produced a great deal of information for Newt to review. Most importantly, during the Battle of New York, Newt, Grindelwald, and Newt's wife had once faced a powerful Obscurus directly.

Its host had also shown that they could fully control the Obscurus for a period of time.

To be honest, Sherlock had already accomplished quite a few miracles in other people's eyes. This time, he bluntly declared that he intended to achieve an even greater miracle: to become the only Obscurial in the history of the wizarding world to successfully control an Obscurus.

Seeing Sherlock so fired up, Newt and Oster, both respected figures in the wizarding world, became excited as well.

Three intelligent wizards sitting together always had plenty in common to talk about.

In truth, Sherlock had unknowingly formed a unique circle around himself—people who admired him, and people who had somehow become his friends. Oster, the director of St. Mungo's, and Newt Scamander were examples. Oster and Newt had only heard of each other before and had never met, but now they were all friends.

Newt and Oster worked together to devise numerous training plans, while Sherlock added many ideas of his own. Sometimes, his novel suggestions made the two old men exclaim in amazement, calling Sherlock a clever little genius.

Meanwhile, Sherlock quietly used the Magic Notebook to research his next spell. The spell's matching rule was a rule for controlling meaningless energy.

Sherlock named the spell Magic Control.

The name was self-explanatory. It would soothe a wizard's violent, uncontrollable magic and calm it down, preventing it from causing the wizard greater harm and allowing the wizard to control the disobedient flow of magic within their body.

He told Oster and Newt about the spell as well. Sherlock hoped that, when his Obscurus erupted, the two of them could use it to suppress the Obscurus and prevent it from causing greater destruction. After all, an Obscurus was also a form of magic.

Once the two men had learned the spell, they broke into another round of excited exclamations.

At last, training became part of their daily routine. Sherlock tried transforming into an Obscurus for the first time. It was somewhat difficult; he had to force himself to think of unhappy and enraging things in order to stir up his emotions.

After several days, Sherlock finally lost control and unleashed the Obscurus within him. The sudden change frightened everyone, including some of the wizards hospitalized at St. Mungo's.

Some of them were quite experienced and recognized that the suddenly appearing, highly destructive black mist was the legendary Obscurus. They screamed at the top of their lungs.

Newt was also astonished, because the scale and destructive power of the Obscurus Sherlock had become was no weaker than the one in New York—perhaps even stronger.

He and Oster hurriedly used Magic Control to help Sherlock restrain the Obscurus. Meanwhile, the restless, mindless black mist crashed about wildly, damaging quite a few buildings.

Even Sherlock within it kept trying to take control of that power. He finally managed to calm it down, but the first training session ended in failure.

The news that Sherlock was an Obscurial soon appeared in the Daily Prophet. After all, there had been so many people inside St. Mungo's.

Leaving aside the wizarding world's shock, Oster hurriedly confirmed the news in the papers. At the same time, he announced that Sherlock was at St. Mungo's to receive treatment, since the magic within him was simply too immense.

Sherlock being an Obscurial also led some people to loudly proclaim, "Even if this child is a genius, he won't live past ten."

But others did not think so. Dumbledore, for example, wrote a letter of support to the Daily Prophet, saying that Sherlock would create another miracle and might even eliminate the Obscurus within him. After all, St. Mungo's was the best hospital.

What truly left people dumbfounded was that, in less than a week, Newt Scamander, Oster Bohan, Lucius Malfoy, Fumengde Mephisto, Cornelius Fudge, Dumbledore, and others all confirmed in the Daily Prophet that Sherlock Mephisto had become the only Obscurial in the history of the wizarding world to successfully control an Obscurus.

From then on, being an Obscurial was no longer a title akin to being a Squib, one representing a terminal illness and death. It could also represent the title of a powerful wizard.

And all of this change had come from that boy of the Mephisto Family.