"Master! Did you hear that?"
Barty Crouch Jr. held the book up before the Stone Basin and pointed to a passage, speaking excitedly to the basin.
"He mentioned how to strengthen the soul through visualization! Isn't that exactly what you need most right now, Master? Your soul has become unstable from being split, and if..."
The light in his eyes grew brighter and brighter. That light was called fanaticism.
"I'll study it until I understand it completely! I'll dig out every secret in here!"
"This is my mission! This must be your arrangement too, Master! You left me here not to suffer, but to unravel the source of Holmes's power for you!"
Barty Crouch Jr., that former top student, had finally found meaning in his existence here.
He would turn these trashy novels into rigorous academic papers capable of overturning the Wizarding World.
"I'm not doing homework."
He seized his quill and wrote rapidly on the parchment. The scratching of its tip across the page sounded especially clear in the deathly silent cave.
"I'm forging new weapons for the Dark Lord's return."
"Just you watch, Douglas. You think you're humiliating me? No, you're aiding the enemy!"
He let out a nervous laugh as he wrote.
"Once I've mastered all your theories, when the day comes for my master to rule the world again..."
He turned toward the lurid green glow of the Stone Basin, his voice becoming gentle and devout.
"I will personally present you with the most powerful magic in the world as a gift."
"You're watching me, aren't you, Master?"
Deep in the cave's shadows, lines of text for "On the Conversion and Application of 'System-Genre' Magic in Real Combat" were growing furiously across the parchment.
Meanwhile.
London, Holmes Manor.
Sirius Black sat at the living room table