Lupin did not continue to ask questions in the classroom, but pointed to the wooden door on the side of the podium leading to the inner office.
"Come in and close the door."
Gavin followed behind in a daze. The excitement of being watched by the whole class on the podium had completely dissipated at this moment.
The furnishings in the room are simple and neat. There are several iron cages used to imprison Black Magical Creatures in the corners. There are two slightly worn armchairs in front of Fireplace.
Looking at those cages, Gavin felt panicked.
You won't lock me in later, right?
"Sit."
Lupin pulled open the chair behind the desk, lowered his head, opened the drawer, and rummaged inside for a wooden needle for detection.
But there was no sound of a chair being pulled out from behind.
Lupin stood up straight with the wooden needle, raised his head and looked -
There is no one in front of the desk.
He was stunned for a moment, and his eyes moved along the empty carpet to the corner of the wall.
In the black iron cage half a man's height beside the wall, there was an unknown figure holding his knees.
Gavin huddled behind the iron fence, his head buried between his knees, and he even thoughtfully closed the cage door with his backhand.
Lupin's hand holding the wooden needle stopped in mid-air, looking at this scene with some confusion.
Deep in his mind, Gavin also fell into a long silence.
"... What are you doing?" Gavin couldn't help but ask in his mind.
Gavin huddled in the cage, sniffed, and said in a voice as low as a mosquito's snort, "Isn't he going to lock us up? I'll come in first... When he beats him later, he might be a little gentler."
Gavin is a little speechless.
I haven't fought to the death yet? Are you surrendering first?
It's just Lupin, not Dumbledore.
Even if it is Dumbledore, it is not impossible to fight a dozen.
He took a deep breath and pressed his eyebrows:
"... It's not that far yet, you come out first."
"Ah? Oh."
At this time, opposite the desk, Lupin looked at the young man in the cage with his head buried tightly, his expression slowly changed from stunned to helpless.
The professor sighed and placed the wooden needle on the edge of the table. He did not criticize him harshly, but just thought of the boy's appearance two years ago.
So, he spoke very softly, as if he was afraid of disturbing a frightened animal:
"Gu... that was locked up Hinkypunk last semester. Come out and sit down on the chair. I'm just checking. I won't hurt you."
I heard both of them say this.
Gavin then slowly pushed open the iron cage door, got out with his schoolbag in his arms, and sat down on the edge of the armchair opposite the desk.
Lupin sat upright again and pointed to the edge of the table.
Gavin hesitated and pulled up the cuff of Robes on the right side, and spread his blackened palm flat on Wooden Table.
Lupin picked up the wooden needle on the table, carefully looked at the dull gray at the edge of the skin, and gently touched the unconscious area with the tip of the needle.
"Does it hurt?"
"It doesn't hurt."
The wooden needle moved to the side of the second knuckle. "What about this?"
"... It doesn't hurt either."
"Bend your finger."
Gavin Try to use force.
The two fingers were forced to bend inward, and their movements were stiff and slow, half a beat too slow.
"Have you seen Madam Pomfrey?" Lupin raised his eyelids.
Gavin shrunk his neck and shook his head softly. "I... I didn't dare to go. It doesn't hurt anyway. I'm afraid my wife thought I touched something outside. Dark Magic..."
Lupin put down the wooden needle, his expression not relaxed, but not as severe as Gavin expected.
"Gavin, do you often stay with ghosts recently?"
Gavin's heart suddenly tightened, and he subconsciously shrank his shoulders.
Gavin in his consciousness also frowned and listened attentively, wanting to hear what he discovered.
"Ordinary ghosts will be fine walking through the corridors or talking in the same room." Lupin said in a calm tone, "But if they are in close contact for a long time, especially if they are repeatedly allowed to pass through the body or stay in the same part, the rejection of the soul will penetrate into the flesh, causing this kind of local freezing and erosion."
"Ah? Is that so?" Gavin was a little confused.
Gavin is also a little confused. He seems to have never heard of this knowledge point.
Lupin looked at the young man's blank face. "I reminded you about the chapter about ghosts and stranded souls in the second grade."
Gavin had no impression of this content and buried his head very low:
"I'm sorry, Professor... I don't remember."
He was sleeping during class at that time, because he was afraid of being beaten by Goyle and the others at night, so he didn't dare to sleep at all.
I felt very at ease during class and fell asleep in a daze.
Then, Gavin asked in his consciousness a little strangely:
"Gai-ge, don't you know this too?"
Gavin was silent for half a second.
"... I don't know."
"Ah? How could--"
"My second-year defense professor is Gilderoy·Lockhart. The most useful thing I learned is how to use Magic styling water to take care of my hair."
Gavin was stunned.
"Ask him why he can't find it in the book?"
Gavin relayed this question.
Lupin smiled and answered patiently:
"There was originally a page in "Common Magical Ailments and Injuries" in the early years. But twenty years ago, the ghosts in the castle jointly protested to the principal, believing that it was a serious prejudice to print 'Contact with ghosts will cause the flesh to turn black and rot' in the book. As a result, the freshmen in those years were so scared that when they saw Nearly Headless Nick in the corridor, they ran against the wall as if they had seen Dementor."
"Later, in order to appease them, Headmaster Dumbledore agreed to cut out all the relevant pages in the library and replaced it with a sentence that the professor would mention orally in class."
"After all, according to Sir Nick's original words at the time - 'Unless some fool insists on chasing a ghost and falling in love for three days and three nights, who would get such a stupid disease?'"
As soon as he finished speaking, Lupin's eyes inadvertently swept across the blackened right hand on the table.
The office was quiet for a moment.
Lupin coughed lightly, swallowed the second half of the sentence silently, and patted the corner of the table gently:
"Ahem... Anyway, just be careful in the future. The professor won't say anything outside."
Gavin buried his head lower.
Gavin in Inner Landscape also has a dark face.
"Professor," Gavin finally raised his head, with some hope in his eyes, "Then will my hand be okay?"
"Yes." Lupin took Wand, "This kind of shallow erosion can be dispelled with high-intensity positive emotional spells."
He looked at Gavin with a hint of exploration and encouragement in his expression:
"I heard that you are teaching Miss Granger Patronus Charm recently, which is used to protect... ahem... so you should have mastered it - do you want to try it?"
Gavin nodded subconsciously, and then remembered that he didn't know how to Patronus.
So, he could only ask for help in his mind:
"Gai-ge, this--"
Gavin is a little speechless. If you don't know how to do it, why don't you agree?
"You should practice too."
"Hehe, definitely, today - no, we will practice tomorrow."
It must be next time, right?
The body takes over in just the blink of an eye.
From the outside, it seemed that the boy was just stunned for half a second, then he naturally stretched out his left hand to pull out Hawthorn Wand, and spread his blackened right hand flat on the table.
Lupin moved the lesson plan on the table to the side, leaving some space:
"Don't worry, summon it first and then let it get close to the affected area."
Gavin held Wand and took a breath.
"Expecto Patronum!"
A ball of silver-white light mist spurted out from the tip of the staff and quickly condensed into shape in mid-air.
A silver Seagull with outstretched wings fluttered up and smoothly drew a tiny arc over the cramped office.
Lupin raised his eyes to look at the entity Patronus, his eyes paused on the solid silver light on the edge of Seagull, and nodded approvingly.
Under the guidance of Gavin's thoughts, the silver Seagull glided low against the table, its warm and soft wings gently brushing against the two stiff and blackened knuckles.
Wherever the silver light passed, the cold and astringent skin first began to feel a layer of warmth.
The originally dark and shriveled color slowly faded from the edge of the knuckles like an ebbing tide, and the slightly pale but normal blood color showed through little by little from under the skin.
Gavin tried to bend his fingers--
The stuck resistance at the joints completely disappeared, and the middle finger rested smoothly on the palm of my hand.
He turned the back of his hand over and rubbed the rough woolen fabric of Robes with his fingertips. The feeling of friction was clearly transmitted back to his mind along the nerves.
"Okay!" Gavin almost jumped up in consciousness, "Gai-ge! That's great!"
Gavin is not smiling.
He pinched the newly recovered area on the inner side of his middle finger with his thumb, and his nails dug into the flesh, causing a clear and sharp sting.
Only then did he let out a long sigh of relief.
Lupin picked up the wooden needle and touched it gently on the area that had no reaction just now. Seeing that the boy shrank subconsciously, the professor showed a relieved smile on his face.
The silver light gradually converged, and Seagull turned into specks of light and dissipated in the air.
Gavin was about to put his hands back into his sleeves, but Lupin suppressed his smile and added:
"Don't have that kind of close contact with ghosts lately."
"If we continue, this erosion will come back. And every time it recurs, it will be deeper and more difficult to remove than the last time."
"Gai-ge, is he talking about Cordelia? But you just said--"
Gavin's movement to stop his hand suddenly paused.
There seemed to be a flash of lightning flashing through my mind.
The professor across the desk was talking about common sense to guard against ghosts in the castle.
But after hearing what Gavin said, Gavin thought of one thing--
Cordelia of Seventh Floor is not a ghost at all, but a living person.
Then, his face darkened little by little.
Gavin has not been penetrated by any ghosts at all in the past few days.
The coldness and death that was temporarily dispersed by Patronus... did not come from the outside world at all.
Its greatest possibility--
It comes from what has always been entrenched in this body and controls the physical nerves--
himself.
Are you already considered a ghost? Or--
Is this the rejection reaction between soul and body?
But one thing is for sure, if this is really the case, then even if he usually returns Consciousness Space, this reaction should never stop.
Patronus dispels only the appearance, the real source of corrosion is him.
Gavin noticed Gavin's silence and did not dare to speak for a while, fearing to disturb Gai-ge's thoughts.
Gavin didn't tell Gavin about this speculation, which would only make him worry in vain and have random thoughts.
He looked down at the palm that had regained its color, and there was only one sentence echoing in his heart -
We must speed up our return home.
Opposite the desk, Lupin put the wooden needle back into the wooden box and closed the lid.
He looked at the young man with his head lowered at the table, paused, and asked warmly:
"Gavin, although I promised not to tell anyone... but can you tell me why you want to meet the ghost?"
Upon hearing these words, Gavin did not immediately return control of his body to Gavin.
The tired middle-aged wizard in front of him reminded him of the past events that Harley had mentioned sporadically, as well as the broken Old Armenian Wizard notebook in his world.
Since we don't have much time to stay in this world, before we leave, we can try to pry out the missing clues from the only successful case in front of us.
Gavin met Lupin's gaze, the expression on his face flickered a little, revealing a bit of the young man's embarrassment when being questioned.
He looked down at his right hand, changed to Gavin's usual timid tone, and spoke sincerely:
"I... I don't have many friends in Slytherin. Harley has helped me a lot these days. I heard her mention it a few days ago that Mr. James and Mrs. Lily have been living in St. Mungo's for so many years because of the sequelae of Cruciatus Curse. Even she can't recognize them."
He paused and lowered his voice:
"When I was looking through old books... I saw a sentence saying that the damage left by Cruciatus Curse may be related to the soul. So... I thought that the ghosts in the school should be ready-made souls. Recently, I often look for ghosts to observe closely, trying to see if I can find some clues... I didn't pay attention to the propriety, so I made my hands like this."
In Consciousness Space, Gavin opened his mouth slightly when he heard it, and his whole body was stunned.
Why is he so proficient? How come he speaks so easily?
"Gai-ge, aren't you lying?"
Gavin replied without any change in his mind:
"You don't understand, this is For the Greater Good."
"Ah?" Gavin was stunned for a moment, "Isn't that still a lie?"
"Headmaster Dumbledore said."
Gavin suddenly understood and nodded honestly:
"Oh... that must be right. I heard he is very powerful."
Suddenly, Gavin thought of something again--
Then can he also report the name of the principal when he deceives others in the future?
Across the desk, Lupin was obviously startled when he heard the names "James" and "Lily".
The couple lying in St. Mungo's's closed ward was the deepest scar in his and Sirius's hearts.
Lupin looked at the young man wearing Slytherin Robes in front of the table with a complicated expression.
When he entered the door just now, the child was so frightened that he crawled into the iron cage. He was usually isolated and helpless in the academy, but in order to repay his friend's kindness, he clumsily touched the ghost, causing his fingers to turn black and hard with the cold.
Lupin The last bit of scrutiny in his eyes slowly melted away, and his expression became particularly soft.
Seeing that the person opposite had completely lowered his guard, Gavin raised his eyes and asked in a low voice:
"Professor... Professor, Harley also told me about your past. She said that you used to be Werewolf. I heard that it was also a Curse that penetrated into the soul, but there was a Armenian Wizard who cured you many years ago... Did you know that night that you would never change back again?"
Lupin didn't have the slightest doubt, leaned back on the chair and answered directly:
"I don't know."
He looked out the window at the pale autumn sky.
"That night, all I knew was that I had become a human again. No one can guarantee what will happen on the next full moon."
"On the next full moon, I still chained myself deep inside Cellar. Sirius held Wand and stayed outside the iron gate all night. None of us could believe that the nightmare that had been bothering me for decades was over."
Gavin asked, "What happened next?"
Lupin paused for a long time, with a relieved smile on his lips:
"Then - nothing happened that whole night, and then it was daybreak."
"In the subsequent full moons, I did not take any Wolfsbane Potion, nor did any mutations occur. The old gentleman indeed completely cured me that night."
After the words fell, Lupin looked away from the window and looked again at the young man at the table who was listening carefully.
His concentration at this moment cannot be faked, he is indeed very interested in the changes in his soul.
He was silent for a moment, then stood up and walked to the bookcase, used Wand to open the bottom Hidden Compartment, and took out an old sheepskin Diary with severely worn corners.
Lupin returned to the table, opened Diary, and pushed it in front of Gavin:
"This is a manuscript copy left by the old gentleman Armenia who saved me back then."
Gavin lowered his eyes, his eyes fell on the yellowed paper, and he reached out to flip through it.
The structural principles of Transfiguration in the first few pages are exactly the same as the Diary he had seen from Lockhart in the main world.
But starting from the page where the main world was cut off by Memory Charm, there are six more pages of dense deductions in this notebook.
Lupin pointed to the illustrations on the first few pages and explained softly:
"The Homorphus Charm that the old man researched in the early years, the Spell can only follow the Magic veins of the human body and forcefully press the wolf-turned-body back into human form. It cannot touch the Werewolf's Bane hidden in the soul at all. As long as the next full moon arrives, Curse will still occur."
His fingers turned back five pages and stopped next to a heavily redacted red Ink annotation:
"It took the old gentleman nearly ten years to figure out one thing - the human soul and body are usually too tightly attached to each other, and external forces cannot penetrate at all. Only on a full moon night, when Werewolf Curse completely attacks, and the soul and body are pulling Transfiguration violently, will the passage between the two be opened, and Transfiguration Spell can follow the changing body and penetrate into the depths of the soul."
"Watch it and seize it, and you will be safe?" Gavin murmured to himself.
"What?" Lupin didn't understand.
"It's nothing, I just think that old gentleman is very powerful." Gavin shook his head and didn't explain much.
The sentence just now refers to the acupuncture method in the "Huangdi Neijing·Lingshu", which means that the best effect is to attack evil spirits when they occur.
The philosophy of Old Armenian Wizard unintentionally coincided with the ancient ancestors of the East.
Gavin's eyes moved down the page.
When I turned to the back of page six, the writing on it stopped in the middle of an unfinished line of Ancient Runes, leaving only a hastily interrupted ink mark.
Everything behind it is blank.
"..."
Another broken chapter.
Lupin looked at the broken ink mark and smiled bitterly:
"The old gentleman used this idea for the first time on the full moon night when he rescued me. I had just transformed back into my human form and fell to the ground without any strength. Sirius rushed over to help me...Lockhart took the opportunity to fight back, but the old gentleman failed to dodge."
The office became quiet.
Gavin took a few deep breaths to calm down.
It's you again? Gilderoy·Lockhart?
After he goes back, he plans to treat Lockhart in his world to take two rounds of Cruciatus Curse.
"After the spell penetrates the soul, how much force should be used, when to stop, and how to guide the body to change back... The old gentleman did it all based on his on-the-spot reaction that night, and he didn't have time to write down a word."
Lupin sighed lightly:
"After his death, Healer of St. Mungo's followed the new spell on the first five pages and found two Werewolf who volunteered to experiment and tried to reproduce it on a full moon night. As a result, although the flesh and skin of the two people were forcibly pressed back into human form, their minds were still violent beasts."
"In less than half a quarter of an hour, the bones burst through the skin and changed back. The person almost died on the hospital bed."
After listening to these words, Gavin finally understood why Werewolf, the only one who had been cured, still stayed in Hogwarts for many years.
If he went out, just being jealous of his Werewolf would be enough for him to drink a pot.
Lupin stretched out his hand and stroked the rough cover of Diary, with a hint of inextricable fatigue in his tone:
"Werewolf outside doesn't believe the words 'the manuscript is not finished' at all."
"People who wanted to ask for help blocked me outside Hogsmeade, scolding me for being selfish, thinking that I hid the life-saving Spell; while another group of extreme guys who relied on 'Werewolf can never change back to a human' to control the same kind of people wanted to kill me immediately, or find an opportunity to bite me again to prove to everyone that people who have been cured can also change back."
"Headmaster Dumbledore asked me to stay in school to teach, not only to avoid trouble outside, but also because I have been turning these pages these past few years." Lupin shook his head mockingly, "I was the only patient who survived that year, but even I can't figure out how the old gentleman did that last move."
Gavin stared at the interrupted line of comments on the page.
St. Mungo's When I tried the medicine, my body changed back, but my mind was still a wolf.
He matched this description with the incomplete manuscript in front of him, suddenly raised his head and looked at the professor opposite:
"Professor, when St. Mungo's's Healer cast a spell, did you stare at whether the body of the recipient changed back? Or did you also observe changes in the soul?"
Lupin was slightly startled. "Of course, how to observe the soul? Homorphus Charm Of course it depends on whether the body has recovered..."
"What about yourself?" Gavin asked, "When the old gentleman cast a spell on you and Mr. Sirius called your name next to you, did you understand his words first, or did your hand change back to a human hand first?"
Lupin was stunned.
He had obviously never recalled the details of that night from this perspective.
The professor sat in his armchair, his eyes slowly stopping in mid-air, looking through the memories of that chaotic full-moon night a few years ago.
"Sirius rushed over and kept calling my name."
Lupin spoke slowly and in a very light voice:
"I'm pretty sure... I understood what he said first. The urge to bite in my mind suddenly stopped. I knew it was him, and I knew he was calling me Remus."
Lupin lowered his head and looked at his open palm:
"... When I looked down, my hands still had gray-white dewclaws with black hook armor."
Gavin looked at that hand quietly.
First understand the name.
When you look down, your hands are still claws.
"So--St. Mungo's reversed the order." Gavin said softly.
Lupin raised his head suddenly.
"They think that the body must be squeezed back into human form first, and then the soul and brain will wake up."
Gavin pointed at the interrupted ink mark on the note.
"But what the old gentleman did back then was exactly the opposite - he took advantage of the full moon channel to open, and first cut off the Curse in the soul that maintained the wolf shape in some way. After your consciousness first recognized that you were Remus·Lupin, the normal connection between the soul and the body was reconnected, and the body retracted by instinct."
"The focus of this Spell is on the soul, not the body."
Lupin stared at the incomplete manuscript blankly, his lips moved slightly, and he didn't say anything for a long time.
Most of the book above emphasizes the restoration of the physical body, and only a few pages at the end mention the possibility of soul transformation.
This made wizards, including him, miss the point.
Coupled with the elusiveness of the soul, they always thought that the changes in the body had a reverse effect on the soul, instead of attacking the soul first.
The knot that had trapped him and St. Mungo's for several years was actually broken by a third-grade student in two sentences.
But just a few seconds later, the light that had just lit up in Lupin's eyes slowly dimmed again.
Gavin also knows exactly where the problem lies.
Even if the order of "save the soul first, then wait for the body to return" is known, this magic spell still cannot be reproduced.
Ordinary wizards cannot see the form of the soul at all.
In the violent Magic turbulence on a full moon night, how does the caster know which Magic hits the Curse node?
How to determine at which second the subject's self-consciousness regained consciousness?
The old wizard relied on his amazing intuition that he had been immersed in this magic spell all his life, and he got through once on the tip of a knife. If it were someone else, even if he knew the sequence, his soul and flesh would still be disintegrated if he was not careful.
As for the patients who were tortured crazy by Cruciatus Curse in the closed ward of St. Mungo's, there may not even be a naturally open passage like Werewolf "Full Moon Transfiguration".
But for Gavin, this half notebook and Lupin's answers have already completed the most critical piece of the puzzle.
Ordinary wizards can't see the changes in the soul, but he can.
It can be said that he has been immersed in this path for a long time.
As long as he could find the secret hidden in his soul, he wouldn't need to rely on intuition to cast spells like the old wizard who was blind and trying to figure out the elephant.
Lupin was fascinated by the page for a long time, then took a long breath and closed Diary.
He raised his head and looked at Gavin again, his expression even more solemn than before:
"Thank you, Gavin. You helped me a lot."
He put Diary back to the corner of the table and warned across the table:
"However, promise me that you will never go to ghosts to do this kind of experiment again. Cruciatus Curse is different from Werewolf Curse. Sirius and I have been asking people to find solutions. If Harley knew that you injured your hand because of her parents, she would feel so uncomfortable."
In Consciousness Space, Gavin was a little embarrassed by the gentle tone of Lupin, and whispered:
"Professor Lupin is such a nice person..."
Gavin also bowed his head politely outside and responded:
"I understand, Professor."
Leaving Defense Against the Dark Arts Office, Gavin handed back control of his body and walked in the empty corridor.
The setting sun stretched his shadow very long on the stone tile floor.
Gavin looked down at his right hand that had returned to normal, tried to move his fingers, and whispered tentatively in his mind:
"Gai-ge... Although it was cured just now, Professor Lupin said it will relapse. As long as we don't go to Seventh Floor again and never see Cordelia... will everything be fine?"
Gavin raised his eyebrows. "Can you hold back?"
Gavin blushed, laughed twice, and his eyes drifted to the side:
"Well... actually, there is no need to not go at all, right? We can stay a little longer each time, put Pumpkin Juice down and leave, or wear a thicker pair of Dragonhide Gloves before going..."
At the end of the sentence, his own voice became softer and he whispered, "If it doesn't work, I'll trouble you Gai-ge and give it a Seagull blow..."
"Haha, you are in love, and I am responsible for rescuing you?" Gavin said expressionlessly, "You understand the division of labor quite well."
"Hehe."
Gavin heard his dissatisfaction and carefully added:
"Then I'll... first ask if you are free?"
"..."
Gavin shook his head and couldn't help but sigh.
It's really a knife to the head with the word "sex", my hands are almost broken and I still think about delivering food.
Joking aside, Gavin still gave him the right words:
"Don't worry, it's not her problem. I told you, she's not a ghost at all."
Gavin's eyes suddenly lit up, and his voice was full of overwhelming surprise:
"Really?! I knew it--"
"It's me."
Gavin's calm words were like a basin of ice water being poured over his head.
The smile on Gavin's face froze instantly.
He stood there stunned and didn't speak for a long time.
Seeing him like this, Gavin didn't speak again, leaving him time to digest.
At the corner of the corridor, a cold wind passed through the hall.
Gavin's thoughts suddenly stopped in the silence.
An idea that he had ignored for a long time surged up from the bottom of his mind without any warning.
If a foreign soul enters the body of a living person and controls the body, it will inevitably lead to conflict between soul and body, numbness of the peripheral parts, and eventually blackening and necrosis of the tissue--
So, what about five years ago?
When he died suddenly in his previous life and woke up in the room of the eight-year-old Chinese boy West End of London, he was also a wandering spirit from another world who had taken over someone else's body.
However, from the age of eight to thirteen, five full years passed.
That body's mind has never seen a second consciousness.
There has never been a trace of rejection or decay in the body.
His fingers never turned black, never lost any feeling, and even became a little stronger. Even the heart palpitations and weakness that had plagued him for many years in his previous life disappeared.
Gavin stood in front of the long river Alaya Consciousness, looking at the endless flowing water, a biting chill slowly spread down his spine.
Why was there no response the first time?
What happened to his time travel?