The setting sun melted into gold.
The sun was gradually sinking toward the western horizon.
Bathed in brilliant crimson evening light, Dawn followed the stairs down to the Great Hall on the first floor, where more than a dozen patients had already gathered.
There were men and women among them, each suffering from all kinds of strange ailments.
Dawn had always regarded healing as an unavoidable waste of time, something he had to do in order to increase his reputation.
But at this moment, he suddenly felt that it was not such a bad way to pass the time after all.
At least it gave him something concrete to do, preventing him from becoming too absorbed in all those scattered pieces of information.
As he thought about this, Dawn reached out and treated the strange fellow before him, whose failed Transfiguration had left him with a fish's head.
The man thanked him profusely.
Before leaving, he placed twenty glittering Galleons on the table. Dawn casually put them away before calling for the next patient.
Everything proceeded in an orderly fashion.
After nearly a month of operating under this system, there was no longer any need to emphasize order.
Creak~
The sound of wood being pressed.
Someone sat down in the chair opposite him once again.
Dawn was already accustomed to it. Without raising his head, he casually said, "Tell me your symptoms. And while you're at it, give me your hand."
...
But there was only silence.
No one answered.
"Tch!"
Dawn impatiently raised his head, intending to see who was being so oblivious.
But the person sitting opposite him was not a patient.
It was Neville, looking nervous and hesitant, seemingly struggling to find the right words.
"Ah. So it's you."
Dawn frowned, though his expression soon relaxed again. He leaned back in his chair, looking distinctly unenthusiastic.
"What is it, troublemaker? What do you want this time?"
"I... I'm here to thank you!"
The chubby boy did not become angry at being given an unpleasant nickname. His voice was very quiet.
He carefully placed the basket he had been clutching against his chest onto the table.
Then he lifted the lid, revealing steaming pastries, biscuits, and various kinds of sweets.
Dawn glanced at them and snorted.
He picked up a piece of candy and tossed it into his mouth, rolling it around with his tongue.
"Hmm. Green apple flavor. Your family is using this as payment for my treatment? How perfunctory."
"No, no!"
Neville became flustered and hurriedly explained.
"My parents are still weak and haven't been discharged from the hospital yet. They said they'll come and properly thank you afterward..."
"These... these are..."
"I... I bought them for you."
Neville stammered, his cheeks reddening.
Dawn raised an eyebrow.
Looking at the boy's evasive yet ingratiating eyes, filled with gratitude, he fell silent for a long time.
For some reason, he suddenly felt irritated.
"All right! I understand. You can go now. I still have plenty of things to do, so don't get in the way."
He waved his hand dismissively.
Hearing the order to leave, Neville obediently stood up.
Before leaving, he even bowed once more and said solemnly:
"Thank you, Mr. Ryan."
He turned around.
But suddenly!
Before he had taken even two steps, Neville felt someone grab the back of his collar and yank him backward.
His body tipped back, and he crashed sideways onto the table in an extremely awkward position.
Bang!
Neville hissed in pain, feeling a dull ache and numbness spreading through his lower back.
He instinctively turned his head.
Behind the wooden table, Dawn's previously calm expression had changed completely.
He suddenly stood up, his face twitching with disbelief and a strange fury.
In a low voice, he asked:
"What... did you just call me?"
"Mr. R-Ryan?"
Neville was terrified.
From his perspective, those scarlet eyes looked down at him like freshly spilled blood. Half of Dawn's face was concealed in shadow, making the whole figure resemble a hideous mask.
Silence.
When Neville called him "Mr. Ryan" again, Dawn stopped speaking.
He did not move either.
Only his breathing gradually became faster and heavier.
Neville shifted uncomfortably, trying to ease the awkward position of his body.
But he could feel a growing, almost savage violence radiating from Dawn.
He swallowed hard.
He did not dare ask whether Dawn could possibly let him change positions.
After a long time, Dawn finally stared coldly at him.
His voice was utterly devoid of emotion, yet somehow carried an incomprehensible complexity.
"What is my name?"
"D-Dawn... Dawn Ryan."
Neville was trembling badly. He only found the courage to answer after closing his eyes.
"S-Sorry... Did I... get something wrong?"
Dawn's vision blurred.
He said nothing.
His eyes merely grew darker.
He reached out and forcibly turned Neville's head toward him.
Their eyes met.
Without hesitation, Dawn cast Legilimency and began searching through the boy's memories.
Countless fragmented images flashed past.
Dawn focused particularly on everything related to himself.
Very quickly, he discovered something.
There had been almost no major changes!
Aside from his surname changing from "Richter" to "Ryan," everything else still corresponded perfectly with the memories in his mind.
"So this time... only my name changed?"
Dawn murmured inwardly.
But his expression did not relax in the slightest.
Last time, the events surrounding Ravenclaw's diadem had been altered.
This time, his own name had been changed.
Then what about next time?
If this continued, would there eventually come a day when everything about Dawn disappeared from everyone's memories, replaced completely by that version of himself whom he did not even acknowledge?
Dawn absolutely could not accept that!
His expression shifted repeatedly.
Almost instinctively, he reached beneath his clothes and grabbed the Invisibility Cloak.
When it was not concealing him, the cloak shimmered with flowing light, smooth and beautiful.
It gave him the last sense of security he possessed.
Dawn tightened his grip on the fabric and breathed slowly, forcing himself to calm down.
Through the open doors of the Great Hall, he looked outside and at the space surrounding him.
The sky illuminated by the setting sun was divided sharply between two extremes, red and gold on one side, deep black on the other.
There was not a trace of any other color.
There was no mist formed by the gathering of natural magic.
But Dawn knew this did not mean he had escaped the World Correction.
It could simply mean that the correction had already ended, which was why he could no longer see any trace of it.
Dawn narrowed his eyes.
Thinking carefully...
When Fudge had come to report that morning, he had still addressed him as "Mr. Richter."
Therefore, the most likely time for this World Correction to have occurred was while he had been concentrating on his reading!
"Now that's a coincidence."
Dawn clicked his tongue, gradually returning to his senses and withdrawing his gaze.
But suddenly.
When his eyes swept over his own magic, he noticed something strange.
After carefully distinguishing the details, his entire body suddenly froze.
Once he eliminated the interference from his own magic, Dawn discovered that wisps of white mist were actually wrapped around his body.
They were completely distinct from the magic within him.
Natural magic?!
Dawn was startled.
How could it have gathered around him?
He instinctively waved his hand, attempting to drive it away.
But his fingers passed straight through it.
Clearly, it was useless.
Dawn observed carefully.
The wisps of magic were coiling around him, attempting to seep inward, but the Invisibility Cloak kept them outside.
It was easy to imagine what would happen if he removed this Deathly Hallow from his body.
Perhaps in the very next moment, his memories would change just like everyone else's.
Dawn's expression became dark and uncertain.
"Mr... Mr. Ryan?"
Neville finally could not endure the strange position any longer and timidly called out again.
Dawn returned to his senses.
He took a deep breath, released his grip on Neville's collar, and allowed him to leave.
Then he sank back into his thoughts.
He was anxious.
The Invisibility Cloak was protecting him for now, preventing the World Correction from affecting his memories.
But the natural magic that lingered around him without dissipating forced Dawn to consider another possibility.
If the World Correction occurred several more times, would the natural magic continue accumulating until, one day, it exceeded the Invisibility Cloak's protective limits?
Dawn suspected that the wisps of natural magic surrounding him now were the accumulated result of the previous alteration involving the diadem and the current alteration of his name.
"What should I do?"
Dawn asked himself.
Two answers immediately emerged.
The first was to continue protecting himself by finding a way to isolate natural magic, perhaps something related to the Four Founders' creation of the Sorting Hat, and combine that protection with the Invisibility Cloak.
But searching for the Founders' legacy would take time.
And there was no guarantee that combining the two methods would completely block the natural magic that might continue accumulating.
It was a gamble.
The second option was to find the source responsible for triggering the World Correction and somehow eliminate it.
But that would not be easy either.
After his surname had changed to "Ryan" this time, Dawn was almost certain that Merlin was behind it.
But he did not know where Merlin was, nor did he know how Merlin had accomplished it.
If he was using a Time-Turner, it would be even harder to guard against.
But there was still the same question.
Why would changing the past cause memories that had already been corrected by the world to change again, once more moving toward Lai?
And if Merlin was not using a Time-Turner...
What method was he using to cause the natural magic to repeatedly trigger the World Correction?
Dawn instinctively thought of Merlin's suggestion during last night's dream.
Go to Egypt and find a way to make use of the accumulated collective consciousness.
Perhaps the answer to everything...
Was hidden in this journey to Egypt?
"I hope I can dream of some relevant information next time..."
That was all Dawn could hope for.
Then he wondered whether the reputation he had accumulated through treating patients could help him in some way.
But reason told him that it probably could not.
There simply had not been enough time.
His mind was filled with countless tangled thoughts.
After a while, Dawn suddenly stood up.
Without paying any attention to the patients who were still arriving one after another, flames flashed around him.
He disappeared without a trace.
When he appeared again, he was no longer at Hogwarts.
He was standing in the middle of the endless sands of Egypt.
Dawn could not wait for another dream!
He intended to search through Egypt himself first and see whether he could find anything related to the collective consciousness.
And so...
He returned to Tutankhamun's tomb.
But this place, which he had already explored several times, offered him no new surprises.
Aside from the necrotic insects crawling everywhere, coffins, and mummified corpses, Dawn could not find anything else of value.
He emerged from beneath the sand.
Disappointment covered his face.
As he brushed the dust from his clothes, he concealed his presence and prepared to search the Great Pyramid of Khufu and several other famous pyramids.
But!
At that moment!
Dawn suddenly felt his heart seize!
The hairs on the back of his neck instantly stood on end.
His wand slid into his hand.
He spun around.
But it was already too late!
A spell suddenly appeared out of nowhere!
It shot straight toward him.
Red light filled Dawn's caught-off-guard eyes before slamming violently into his unprotected chest.
Crack~
Through his dazed consciousness, he heard the sound of breaking bones.
Pain exploded through his chest.
A tremendous force sent both his feet flying off the ground as the howling wind tore across the desert around him, carving lines through the sand.
Who was it?!
And the force behind this spell...
Dawn's pupils contracted.
He looked up in shock and fury.
He had never imagined that someone would suddenly attack him at this moment.
While flying backward through the air, Dawn desperately tried to identify the direction from which the spell had come.
But before he could make anything out, a wave of dizziness surged into his mind.
Fuck!
It was a Stunning Spell!
Dawn cursed inwardly, gritted his teeth, and desperately fought against the overwhelming drowsiness flooding his soul.
But with a heavy thud, he hit the ground.
His eyes still closed involuntarily.
For a moment.
The desert fell silent.
The only sound left in the world was the faint rustling of windblown sand.
Dawn lay on his back in the desert, completely unable to resist, looking like prey waiting to be slaughtered.
Whoosh~
After a long time, another gust of dry wind swept through.
A figure suddenly appeared nearby.
It was impossible to tell where he had come from.
He seemed to have materialized from thin air, yet at the same time looked like a blurred phantom.
The man stepped forward and slowly approached the boy.
Then he crouched beside him and reached out with his left hand.
The phantom-like limb gradually became solid as he moved.
He pulled Dawn's coat aside, reached inside with all five fingers, seized the shimmering Invisibility Cloak, and pulled backward, apparently trying to remove it.
But suddenly!
Creak~
A young hand shot out and seized the intruding wrist.
The grip was so tight that the flesh twisted around the bones, producing a teeth-grating sound.
At the same time!
The sand beneath them suddenly churned.
A green python opened its jaws and shot upward, biting directly at the intruder's ankle.
The grains of sand thrown into the air twisted and expanded, transforming into countless tiny serpents.
Then, under Dawn's precise control of magic, they all transformed into the deep green light of the Killing Curse.
On the desert floor, Dawn suddenly opened his eyes.
His scarlet pupils reflected the sand and the figure of an elderly man with white hair, a long beard, and classical robes.
The man's eyes were calm and steady.
This was someone Dawn had never seen before.
And yet...
Even though the two had never met, Dawn somehow knew the answer.
The name escaped his lips instinctively.
"Merlin! Ambrosius!"
His voice was dark and terrifying.
Perhaps because he had heard the name countless times in his dreams, he felt surprisingly little shock.
Hearing the name, the man's lips moved, as though he intended to say something.
But Dawn gave him no chance!
The air was torn apart with a sharp hiss.
Deep green light rained down like a violent storm.
Dawn did not care about Merlin's reputation as a Grand Sorcerer, nor did he care why the man had appeared here.
The moment Merlin threatened him, Dawn intended to kill him.
Bang!
Bang bang!
The explosions continued without pause.
The desert floor was blasted apart, leaving one crater after another.
But suddenly, Dawn felt a sharp pain in his palm.
The hand holding Merlin suddenly grasped nothing.
His fingernails, carried by the momentum of his grip, dug deeply into his own palm.
Blood flowed.
The green Killing Curses passed straight through Merlin's body, as though striking a reflection in water.
They had no effect whatsoever.
The Grand Sorcerer remained crouched on the ground, his expression calm.
He stared into Dawn's red eyes.
After a long silence, he spoke softly.
"Long time no see, Lai."
"Like hell, Lai!"
Veins bulged on Dawn's forehead.
He forced the profanity through clenched teeth.
A mass of flame engulfed him, carrying him several meters away.
He stared solemnly at the place where Merlin had been.
But...
The man's figure had disappeared!
Dawn froze.
He turned and looked in every direction.
But within the howling sandstorm, there was nothing except himself.
Even the craters created by his spells had already been filled by the shifting sand, as though everything had been nothing more than an illusion.
But Dawn's splitting headache and the countless cracks covering the soul-related special patterns within his magical mist all reminded him of the same thing.
Everything had been real.
Dawn did not lower his guard.
When he felt a warm current flow from deep within his soul, attempting to heal the special patterns that were close to shattering, he deliberately stopped his phoenix ability from taking effect.
This was also the technique Nicolas Flamel had warned him about during the previous school year, a method for resisting the Stunning Spell.
At the time, when Dawn had faced the resurrected Voldemort, the alchemist had told him that a soul divided by a Horcrux remained in constant agony, making it difficult for a Stunning Spell to take effect.
Therefore, when Dawn had been struck by the Stunning Spell just now, he had used the same principle to alter the special patterns of his soul and keep himself conscious.
As for what a soul looked like after creating a Horcrux...
Having personally handled Voldemort's Horcruxes, Dawn naturally knew exactly what it looked like.
A long, long time passed.
The desert remained peaceful.
Merlin did not appear again.
Dawn frowned.
After thinking for a moment, he no longer had the time to continue exploring Egypt's pyramids.
Flames flashed.
He went directly to the Vatican.
Although he did not know whether a house protected by the Fidelius Charm could keep Merlin out, it certainly gave him a greater sense of security than the open desert.
When he reappeared inside the familiar wooden hut, Dawn relaxed slightly.
Then he remembered the sudden battle just moments earlier, and his brows drew tightly together.
Actually...
He could roughly guess the reason for Merlin's inexplicable appearance and disappearance.
It was probably the so-called "disconnection" phenomenon.
He could not be seen by anyone, nor could he be touched by anything.
But understanding the reason did not make Dawn feel any better.
Especially since Merlin seemed to have found a limited way around the problem.
Think about it.
A "ghost" who could not be detected by anyone, who could linger beside you at all times, who might even know everything about you, and who could occasionally appear in the real world...
That was an extremely frightening prospect!
It meant that at any moment, he could be attacked from behind without warning.
Fuck!
Was he having the worst luck tonight?
His surname had been changed, and Merlin was now after him.
Why was every piece of news bad?!
Dawn gritted his teeth.
Remembering what Merlin had done while he was unconscious, he pulled the Invisibility Cloak tighter around himself.
At this point, the situation was already very clear.
Merlin intended to take the Invisibility Cloak away.
And his purpose could only be to allow the natural magic to alter Dawn.
Therefore, the previous World Corrections could now be confirmed beyond doubt to have been connected to Merlin.
But...
Dawn could not help wondering why Merlin had chosen to attack him at that particular moment.
If he wanted to take the Invisibility Cloak, wouldn't it have been easier to wait until Dawn was asleep?
Could it have been because of the Fidelius Charm?
But aside from the dream that occurred once every fifteen days, Dawn slept in Hogwarts during all other periods.
And the castle only had the most basic protective spells around it.
To a Grand Sorcerer, they might as well have been completely nonexistent.
___________
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