It was so quiet inside the door that you could hear a pin drop.
Consciousness Space Depth, there was deathly silence under the white mass Whirlpool.
The young man buried his face into the crook of his knees, his thin shoulders were so stiff that even the slight trembling he had just stopped.
Gavin called out "Gavin" in his mind, but there was no response at all.
The boy seemed to be completely broken.
Gavin recovered his mind, looked at the girl at the table, and only asked:
"What do you mean?"
Cordelia is holding the edge of the table, her long silver-gold hair hanging smoothly on her shoulders, and the smile on her face is gentle and calm.
"I said, I like strong people."
Cordelia lowered his eyes and glanced at the wide and empty men's Robes on his body, and the corners of his lips curved in a helpless arc:
"My father died five years ago, and Rowle family was on the verge of collapse. All the people in the branch were staring at the manor, like a pack of hungry wolves. A Pure-blood families with only one woman could not keep the family business... so Since Cordelia·Rowle can only 'die' at the age of nine, I must drink Potions to become Daiya to support the family."
Her voice was very soft, with a hint of softness and weariness after taking off her disguise.
Gavin looked at her with no emotion in her tone:
"What does this have to do with me?"
Cordelia raised his eyes and looked at him quietly with his silver-gray eyes.
She let go of her hand on the edge of the table and walked towards him step by step along the edge of the rubber Wooden Table.
"Pretending to be someone else is too tiring... Once you take that medicine, you will understand that every time you take it, your bones will ache."
She walked very slowly, and her face lost the coldness she usually had when doing Daiya. Her expression was natural and soft, revealing a vulnerability where she had completely let down her guard.
"Before, in school, with him, he was surrounded by idiots who needed my protection."
The girl stopped half a step away.
The distance between the two was so close that you could smell the faint breath in her hair.
She raised her face slightly and looked at the young man close at hand, with a light and gentle smile in her eyes:
"It wasn't until I saw you these two days that I realized that I don't have to hold on so hard all the time."
"Now that I have met a truly strong person... I can actually rely on him, right?"
The room was extremely quiet.
The familiar and delicate face in front of me is exactly the same as the person Gavin remembers deeply.
Gavin stood where he was, not retreating or speaking.
His eyes were fixed on the girl's slightly raised face, his eyes were slightly focused, and his breathing seemed to have stopped at this moment. His whole body seemed to be stunned, and he didn't even move the fingers hanging by his side.
Seeing his absent-minded look, the smile in Cordelia's eyes deepened.
She knew that no one could resist her appearance.
Taking a gentle breath, she naturally raised her right hand from her side and passed it towards Gavin's lapel, as if she wanted to brush off some dust for him.
The next moment--
Before the smile on her face dissipated, her right hand hidden in the sleeve of her wide robe turned over without warning, and Wand had slipped into her palm!
At such a close distance, there is no way to avoid it.
The tip of the stick pointed directly at Gavin's chest. Without any hesitation, Spell suddenly sounded in his ear:
"Avada Kedavra!"
Gavin was stunned in Consciousness Space and raised his head in surprise.
The first thing he saw was that his eyes suddenly flicked to the side.
Gavin, who seemed to be in a daze just now, moved at the same moment that Cordelia's fingers tightened on the handle of the staff.
He took a step forward with his right foot to the side, directly out of the way of the straight line pointed by the tip of the stick, and lifted it upwards, suddenly lifting the heavy oak Wooden Table between the two of them, blocking it in front of the stone wall behind him.
The dazzling green light passed by his afterimage, hitting the center of the upturned thick table.
Boom!
The solid wood exploded under the death Spell, and the broken wood swept around like flying knives.
Cordelia's pupils shrank suddenly, and his arms were numbed by the air waves. Just as he was about to deflect the tip of his staff to pursue him, a Red Light roared from the side through the scattered wood chips in the sky.
"Expelliarmus!"
There was a crisp clicking sound.
Cordelia felt the tiger's mouth tremble violently, and Wand flew out of his palm, spinning in mid-air, crossing a distance of several feet, and fell to the foot of the closed wooden door with a clatter.
Dead silence returned to the house.
The splintered wood fell on the blanket with a muffled sound.
Gavin is holding Hawthorn Wand in his right hand, the tip of the stick is drooping diagonally, and the frightened look on his face just now has long since disappeared without a trace.
"Very nice Killing Curse, but--"
He looked at the girl opposite and raised the corners of his mouth slightly.
"Miss Rowle, do you know that your Occlumency is really bad."
The last trace of smile remaining on Cordelia's face was completely frozen.
"How... how could it be?"
Gavin lowered his head and glanced at the broken oak Wooden Table on the ground, then glanced at the intact wall behind him, and said in a calm tone:
"Also, I like this room very much. You'd better not blow it up by throwing Spell around."
Cordelia looked at the black-haired boy in front of him in disbelief.
Does he even have the strength to protect this room?
Gavin looked at the messy pieces of wood on the ground, stiffened for a long time, and then managed to squeeze out a sentence with great difficulty:
"Then... what is that?"
"Killing Curse." Gavin's voice sounded deep in the consciousness, without any ripples, "She wants my life."
"Ah?"
Gavin's mind is in chaos.
He couldn't understand how those gentle words just now turned into a penetrating green light in an instant.
"But... didn't she just say..."
"She wanted to protect you from the beginning."
The voice of Gavin rang directly in the room. It was not loud, but it was extremely clear in the room.
Cordelia heard it clearly.
Gavin looked at her. "Right, Miss Rowle?"
The girl pursed her bloodless lips and stared at him without responding.
"But I'm still curious," Gavin's voice was still steady, "Why are you so hostile to me?"
Cordelia didn't pick up Wand by the door.
She knew that the person in front of her could see through the mind and use the wandless and silent Legilimency. She could only breathe lightly and forcefully suppress the turbulence in her mind, trying to seal her brain with the unskilled Occlumency.
There was a brief stalemate in the room.
After a few seconds, the girl's emotions finally tore a hole in her pale face.
"You wouldn't think," she stared at Gavin, her voice trembling but icy, "I've never seen someone like you, right?"
Gavin did not answer the call.
"A guy who trembles even when others speak loudly, dared to point Wand at Goyle overnight, was the first to pass under Lupin, and was able to defeat Dark Wizard on his own at Hogsmeade."
Cordelia stared at him with a cold smile on his lips:
"My cousin also suddenly became powerful like this back then."
Gavin's eyebrows moved slightly and his eyes fell on her face.
"He has never won on Duelling Club before and is scared to death of his father. When there are quarrels at home, he will only pull me to hide in the greenhouse behind and secretly stuff candy into my hand."
Cordelia lowered his eyes, spoke very slowly, and tried his best to suppress the rise and fall of his chest:
"Until the elders thought he was worthless and couldn't support Rowle family, they forced him to accept the so-called 'ancestral inheritance'."
"From that day on, he really learned powerful magic. He never lost a game again Dueling. He even dared to contradict his elders in front of everyone and block the punishment for me... I was still happy for him at that time."
The girl's fingertips dug into the wide sleeves of her robe, and the curve of her lips turned pale and self-deprecating:
"I asked him why he was so powerful all of a sudden. He just gave me the candy, smiled and said to me - don't be afraid, that's because there was a voice in his head teaching him, and that voice was helping him."
Deep in Consciousness Space, Gavin, who had buried his face in the crook of his knees, suddenly froze.
The young man raised his head blankly.
The night before yesterday in this room, he had just said almost the same words to her in exactly the same tone.
Gavin stood behind the broken wood and asked calmly:
"What happened next?"
"Later, his appearances became less and less frequent."
Cordelia's voice cooled down a little:
"Every time I went to look for him and opened the door, I saw the same face, and my favorite candy was still on the corner of the table, but I knew it was not him. I begged that person to let him out and talk to me as before, and that person would look at me and smile - 'He is tired, and if he has anything to do, just tell me.'"
"The last time I saw my brother, he grabbed my wrist and couldn't even finish his words. He only had time to tell me that he couldn't come out on his own. This was the last time he spoke to me. He told me to be strong and eat less candy in the future."
She raised her eyes suddenly, with bloodshot eyes, staring at Gavin:
"After that, everyone praised my brother for his improvement, saying that he finally deserved the surname Rowle family. Only I knew that it was not him."
The room was eerily quiet.
Cordelia's gaze suddenly moved down, staring intently at Gavin's right hand hanging by his side.
Just now, Magic was used one after another, and the gray-black death energy that had been temporarily suppressed by Patronus faintly emerged under the knuckles of the index finger and middle finger.
"Do you know how my cousin died in the end?"
Cordelia's voice trembled, and he suddenly raised his hand and pointed at the two blackened knuckles, his eyes full of anger:
"It's just like you now! First the right hand was ulcerated, then the arm, shoulder... until the whole body was rotten!"
"His hand started to break the night before yesterday! How long do you want me to wait?!"
Gavin looked down at his right hand and made no excuse.
Lupin's words were still in his ears, and he really couldn't assure her that this matter had nothing to do with him.
"So you think," Gavin raised his eyes and asked, "That one Killing Curse can take me away?"
"You are the one who controls the body now." The girl looked directly at him, "So, you will only die."
Gavin frowned:
"Are you sure? Who has verified it?"
"Don't worry, I just know."
Cordelia pushed back coldly.
It seemed that the young man opposite had a dull look on his face, and he obviously didn't believe that she, a fourth-year student, could figure out such a thing, and he seemed to not want Gavin to misunderstand her and harm him.
She added coldly:
"There is a record in Department of Mysteries."
As soon as the words came out, she suddenly pursed her lips and didn't say another word.
Gavin raised his eyebrows slightly.
Not many people have access to the top-secret files of Department of Mysteries. It seems that there is an elder who is not a simple person behind Miss Rowle.
At this moment, the voice of Gavin rang in the back of my mind.
Faint, but clear.
"Gai-ge, can you let me talk to her?"
Gavin glanced at Wand lying alone by the door, confirmed that the girl opposite had no other spell-casting actions, and responded in his mind:
"Okay."
The body's sensations came back to me in an instant.
Gavin suddenly grasped Wand in his hand, his shoulders instinctively shrank, and his knuckles turned white.
He raised his head and looked at Cordelia.
The girl immediately noticed the change in the expression on the other side.
The calmness and scrutiny disappeared, replaced by the familiar panic and helplessness.
The anger in her eyes subsided slightly, her nervous expression relaxed slightly, and her whole person became slightly softer:
"Don't be afraid, I won't harm you."
Cordelia took a half step towards him:
"But I will definitely kill that soul."
Gavin looked at her blankly and blurted out:
"Why?"
The girl thought he didn't understand what happened to her cousin. Just when she was about to speak, Gavin interrupted her in a panic:
"I... I heard everything!"
The boy's voice was not as smooth as Gavin, with obvious stumbles, but it was higher than ever before:
"But... I know who is good to me!"
He gripped Wand tightly and said eagerly:
"Gai-ge taught me magic, and I've been looking for a way to get it back."
"The man in the bookstore yesterday... I defeated him myself, not Gai-ge! He didn't do it for me, I defeated him myself with Levitation Charm!"
Cordelia heard "knock himself down", his expression did not loosen, and there was a deeper sadness in his eyes:
"My brother told me the same thing at first."
Gavin choked.
He opened his mouth, his tongue tangled, and he couldn't find any profound reason to refute her, nor could he prove that Gavin would never kill him if he stayed in his body.
But Gavin still gritted his teeth and pushed back in shock:
"Then you can't kill him either!"
"And..." Gavin looked at the bloodshot eyes and trembling body of the girl, feeling a little distressed, "You... can you calm down first?"
Cordelia shakes his head:
"No, it's too late..."
"Ah?"
Cordelia looked at the young man's flushed and helpless face, and finally said what he had been holding in his heart:
"I'm going to die soon."
Gavin's head buzzed, and his whole body froze in place.
It took two seconds for him to come back to his senses, his voice trembling:
"Death? How, how is it possible... what nonsense are you talking about?!"
Cordelia twitched the corners of his bloodless mouth, and there was a trace of exhausted loneliness in his eyes:
"Nothing is impossible. I've had enough of this rotten world for a long time. It's almost as if I can survive to this day."
She looked at Gavin steadily:
"But before that, I at least want to make sure you are safe."
Gavin was so frightened by the calm tone in which she explained her funeral that her face turned pale and her breathing suddenly became erratic:
"I don't want you to worry about my safety! You were clearly fine in the library just now... You are only in fourth grade, what happened? Why did you die?!"
Cordelia did not answer immediately.
Her free right hand hung by her side.
Suddenly, from the edge of the wide Black Robes cuffs, a very thin wisp of black quietly overflowed, like smoke.
The girl raised her head, with a deathly look deep in her gray eyes:
"Want to know why?"
Black air like ink rose from her shoulders and back, rolling and spreading against her skin.
Two huge black wings suddenly spread out behind her.
Wings made of pure black mist instantly filled the room, and the cold and violent Magic slapped the walls like a tide.
The wing tip brushed against the broken residual corner of Wooden Table.
There was a small click sound, and the half-inch-thick hard wood silently turned into fine ash, and a large piece was missing in an instant.
Cordelia's face was even paler than before, his thin body swayed slightly, his chest heaved violently, and every breath came with a tearing noise.
"That's why."
She lowered her eyelashes and waited for the boy opposite who usually trembled even when speaking loudly to retreat in fear.
However, Gavin did not withdraw.
His eyes didn't even stay on the pair of terrifying black wings that had just turned Oak into ashes, he only stared at the girl's pale-as-paper face and trembling shoulders.
The fear in his heart turned into a look of pity at this moment. The young man subconsciously took a step forward and reached out to help her:
"You..."
"Don't come here!"
Cordelia's pupils suddenly shrank and he shouted to stop.
Along with her voice, the pair of black wings that almost reached Gavin's head suddenly shrank back half a foot, and the wingtips were tightly gathered on both sides of her own thin back.
She was trying her best to suppress it, but when she looked at the young man who stopped half a step away and kept getting closer, her gray eyes were filled with astonishment:
"... Aren't you afraid?!"
Gavin then came back to his senses, took back his hand in a daze, looked at her forehead soaked with cold sweat, and whispered honestly:
"A little scared... but you look like you can't stand anymore. It must be very painful, right?"
Cordelia's breathing was stagnant, and he couldn't speak for a moment.
Gavin looked at the pair of black wings that were still trembling, and his mind flashed back to how she shrank in the blanket every time in the past two years, her voice was dry:
"So every Wednesday night, you used to hide here and tremble... is that also because of this?"
"Hmm."
Cordelia lowered his eyelashes and his voice was hoarse:
"I started drinking Potions five years ago. At first, I just wanted to become Daiya and support the family. But later I discovered that when I became another person, the black fog in my body would also calm down."
Gavin's eyes suddenly lit up, as if grasping a life-saving straw, he said urgently:
"Then take the medicine quickly! Now that you have changed back to Daiya, will it make you feel better?!"
"It's no use."
Cordelia interrupted him in a low voice.
"When I did Daiya last week, black energy came out from the back of my hands. The Potions has reached its limit."
She looked at her pale fingers:
"I thought that as long as I kept drinking, I could survive."
Gavin's chest felt blocked and he said anxiously, "What about the professor? Madam Pomfrey, or Headmaster Dumbledore..."
"No need." Cordelia shook his head slightly, "It's useless, they can't cure it."
Gavin was so anxious that his eyes were red, he clenched his fist Wand and turned around to walk towards the door:
"How do you know if you haven't tried it?! I'm going to call someone right now--"
"Stop!"
Cordelia called him, his voice tight:
"This is not important. Let's solve your problem first."
Gavin stopped suddenly, turned around and looked at her in disbelief:
"Why isn't it important?! You're going to die!"
Cordelia looked at him quietly, with no trace of emotion on his pale face, and just shook his head gently:
"People always die."
Her eyes slowly moved down and fell on his blackened right hand again, her voice trembling slightly:
"But I don't want to see you become a completely different person before I die."
Before she finished speaking, the pair of tightly folded black wings behind her suddenly swelled, and the thick black mist bypassed Gavin, whizzing past the stone walls on both sides, instantly blocking the way to the wooden door!
She won't hurt Gavin, she just doesn't want him to run out and call for help again.
Gavin was so frightened that his breathing stopped and he had no time to react.
Deep in my mind, the voice of Gavin sounded:
"Let me do it."
Gavin did not hesitate, and the control of the body was handed over instantly.
Cordelia Standing in the middle of the ashes on the ground, he was keenly aware that the eyes of the boy opposite him had changed back to that of a calm outsider.
He sneered, preparing to make him suffer a little.
Almost at the same moment, the violent black wings Cleansweep arrived in front of him.
The Magic that this body can mobilize at the moment is already limited. Faced with the black mist that can turn even hard wood into fly ash, conventional magic spells will only be instantly annihilated when it hits it.
Gavin did not make a hard connection. With a flick of his wrist, the two wooden chairs and half of the broken table on the ground suddenly flew into the air, blocking the black mist head-on. He himself took advantage of the repulsive air waves and took several steps back until his back was close to the wall before he stabilized his body.
There were a few crisp sounds, and the wooden chair that flew out turned into fine gray on the spot in the black mist.
Seeing that the guy who just surrendered his Wand easily could only retreat in panic in front of the black mist, unable to even cast a decent counterattack spell, a sneer appeared on the girl's pale lips.
She raised her hand and pointed at the black air rolling around her:
"What, is it surprising? You've never seen anything like this before, right?"
Gavin patted a bit of wood ash that splashed on the corner of his robe, looked up at her, and spoke in a calm tone, as if he was talking about the weeds on the roadside:
"Obscurus What, what next? What do you want to say?"
The sneer on Cordelia's face froze instantly.
The originally full pressure felt like a punch hitting the cotton. The girl opened her mouth, not knowing what to say for a moment.
There was a strange silence in the room.
After two seconds, a trace of anger flashed in Cordelia's eyes. She simply stopped talking nonsense to him, raised her hand and reached into her collar, and pulled out the slender silver chain hanging around her neck.
An antique silver Locket hangs at the end of the chain, its surface covered with scratches and bumps from the years.
"Arrogant bastard." Cordelia stared at Gavin, "Then try this again."
Snap.
She used her thumb to open the buckle of Locket. The lid of the box popped open, revealing some silver jewelry on the inside.
Gavin's eyes fell on the silver box, not knowing why.
It looked like just a handicraft, not even a magic item.
"There is more than one Spell that I am researching recently."
Cordelia did not reach for the Wand by the door. A dark Magic emerged from his palm, and a string of obscure ancient syllables came out of his mouth.
Buzz--
Locket suddenly lit up, and a cold suction force aimed at the soul exploded out of thin air, grabbing Gavin tightly.
The moment he heard the string of mantras and felt his soul being forcibly pulled towards the silver box, Gavin's eyebrows moved slightly.
This is--
Horcrux?
He is too familiar with this soul-inhaling Spell.
Forcibly pulling and sealing the stripped soul into some kind of artifact--
This is clearly the core step of Horcrux Creation.
Use Horcrux against yourself?
I have to admit, this is a very good idea.
Gavin looked at the girl opposite who was gritting her teeth to maintain Spell, a trace of undetectable meaning flashed in her eyes.
He didn't swing his staff to knock away the silver pendant in her palm, or even use a defensive spell.
He just calmly moved half a step to the side, stepped his feet deeply into the ground, and stood the body firmly.
Then, the white light in Consciousness Space suddenly surged.
"Take good care of yourself, Gavin."
Gavin only felt that Gavin's voice suddenly sounded far away.
"Gai-ge?"
No response.
The heavy body sensation suddenly came back to Gavin himself.
The Hawthorn Wand in his hand suddenly sank. He staggered and almost fell to the ground. However, because of the stance Gavin had just prepared in advance, his body stabilized and he did not fall into the pile of debris.
"Gai-ge?"
Gavin shouted in disbelief.
The day before yesterday at Wind Chime Bookshop, Gavin, even if he didn't speak, that cold presence was always hanging in the center of his consciousness.
But now.
That spot is completely empty.
He couldn't feel the other person anymore.
"Gai-ge?!" Gavin suddenly became anxious and shouted heartbreakingly, "Where are you? Don't go!"
However, no matter how much he shouted this time, not even a ripple appeared in his mind.
This time, Gai-ge is really gone, no joke.
He became a human again.
Gavin suddenly raised his head and looked at Cordelia opposite.
Snap.
The old silver pendant in the girl's palm has its buckle completely closed.
She finally smiled with satisfaction.
The room finally became quiet.
Cordelia gasped for air, the cold sweat on his forehead soaked his broken hair and dripped down the corners of his eyes.
She raised her head and looked across.
The young man staggered and grabbed Wand, his face full of panic, his lips trembling and opened, but what he shouted in his throat was the name of the outsider.
It's Gavin.
The original idiot is back.
So far so good.
Cordelia's extremely tense shoulders finally relaxed a little, but then, a tearing pain in her chest made her cough.
She lowered her eyes and looked at the old silver pendant held in her left hand.
A cold sarcasm rose from the corner of his mouth:
"I thought you were so strong."
"It's nothing more than that."
This sentence was meant for the soul in the silver pendant, and I don't know if he could hear it.
Cordelia's wrist is still shaking slightly, and the sweat on his forehead has not receded.
But it's not time to rest yet.
You can't keep this thing.
If you stay even a second longer, something might happen.
Wisps of black mist spread from her pale arms, carrying a violent and destructive aura, and quietly wrapped around the silver pendant in her palm.
Gavin saw her movements clearly and immediately shouted anxiously:
"What are you going to do?!"
Cordelia did not raise his head, but concentrated on controlling the black mist to continue to spread in his hands:
"Get rid of him completely."
"No! Stop it!" Gavin suddenly became anxious, "Stop it!"
The girl didn't stop.
Her brother was completely devoured step by step because no one destroyed the soul at the beginning.
She would never let Gavin make the same mistake again.
The black mist clung to the metal shell of the silver pendant, making a slight sizzling sound.
Just then.
A short and hoarse Spell blasted in the air:
"Wingardium Leviosa!"
Cordelia The silver pendant in his palm suddenly shook!
A huge force burst out from inside the falling body, pulling violently outward!
How is that possible?!
The girl's pupils shrank, her fingers subconsciously tightened, and her nails dug into the metal edge.
But that power was too steady and heavy.
The slender silver chain instantly stretched into a straight line!
Click!
The thin chain suddenly breaks.
Before the violent black mist completely surrounded her, the silver Locket turned into a silver light, broke free from her fingers, and flew across half the room whistling!
Cordelia suddenly raised his head.
I saw Locket passing through the air and falling steadily into Gavin's open right hand.
The young man closed his right hand holding Wand tightly, grasped the cold silver pendant and the staff handle together in his palm, and held it tightly in front of his chest.
The broken wood made a thin sound under his feet, and the dark atmosphere of Obscurus filled the surroundings.
But at this moment, Gavin did not take a step back.
Whenever he encountered danger in the past, he would always huddle deep in Inner Landscape and beg Gavin to face it for him.
But this time, there was no one to take his place.
Cordelia looked at him, his eyes full of astonishment:
"Gavin?"
She has studied Horcrux and heard that Horcrux will repel most Spell, and it is impossible for a mere Levitation Charm to work.
This turn of events completely stunned her.
The young man stood among the broken wood, his chest heaving violently, and the hand holding Wand kept shaking, but he did not let go for a moment.
He gritted his teeth and his voice was hoarse and trembling, but he could hear clearly:
"You are not allowed to hurt him."
Cordelia stared at him blankly, at a loss.
The young man slowly raised his head.
The originally dark eyes had all turned into a sharp silvery white.