Chapter 263 The Truth and Death
"He attacked me before because he must have sensed that his Horcrux was destroyed. He would have gone to look for other Horcruxes that he had hidden before. After he found that they were all destroyed, he must have made a backup for himself. However, the number seven is almost the limit, so there can only be one, and the snake following him is the most likely one."
Neither Phineas nor Dumbledore directly said that the Horcrux was Harry. One reason was that they both felt a little reluctant about it. After all, Harry was also a living being, and what they had always wanted to do was to cultivate Harry's spirit of sacrifice and courage, and then let Harry willingly go to death.
Another reason is Sirius, Harry's godfather. He may not have such deep feelings for Harry, but Harry is the child of his best friend James after all. Sometimes Sirius even mistook Harry for James in a trance. Sirius may not care if it is just a godson, but if it is James's child, he will definitely care, just like Snape cares about Lily's child.
Dumbledore agreed with Phineas's analysis of the Horcruxes and said.
"Now that you mention it, it really does seem to be just as you said. But I'm still curious—how exactly did he come back? You know, when I saw him during the incident with the Philosopher's Stone earlier this year, he was still just a wandering soul."
Phineas nodded.
"I'm curious about that too. But besides that, there's something else I think you should know."
"Go on."
"I saw one of the attackers fleeing from the alley not long ago—and I'm certain it wasn't a hallucination."
Phineas's tone was very solemn;
Dumbledore also became serious and asked,
"Who is it?"
"Peter Pettigrew!"
"This is impossible!"
Before Dumbledore could speak, Sirius spoke up.
"Phineas, you told me before that you saw the Dementor's Kiss performed on him before handing him over to the Ministry of Magic. There's no way he could attack you again!"
Dumbledore sighed and said,
"Actually, after he was brought to the Ministry of Magic, he was sent behind that Veil in the Department of Mysteries, so, technically, he's dead."
Phineas nodded.
"This is what I want to tell you. I am very sure that man is Peter Pettigrew. Lisa was injured because of him."
"Lisa? Your female werewolf assistant?"
Sirius asked doubtfully.
"Come to think of it, she is missing just like you."
Phineas nodded and explained.
"She was seriously injured before, so I took her to hide. I watched Pettigrew attack her, and then he turned into a mouse to avoid my attack."
Nicolas coughed twice and said,
"So maybe the answer to both of your questions is one."
The three turned to look at Nicolas, waiting for him to continue.
"Albus said that you-know-who was in a wandering state and was injured, and Phineas was also sure that the soul of Peter Pettigrew you mentioned was sucked away and sent behind the veil leading to death. However, now both of them are back and are planning an attack on Phineas. This reminds me of a hypothesis I made a long time ago."
No one spoke, and everyone was waiting for Nicolas to continue. However, he paused, looked at Dumbledore with a smile, blinked his eyes, and asked,
"I say, Albus, shouldn't you let an old man like me who has lived for five hundred years sit down, prepare some food for me, and let me talk slowly."
As soon as these words were spoken, the tense atmosphere in the office suddenly disappeared and seemed a little funny.
Dumbledore waved his hands helplessly and called the Hogwarts house-elves to come, who brought some desserts and tea. Then he took Nicolas, Phineas and Sirius to a set of sofas in his lounge upstairs from the office and sat down on them.
After eating a few pieces of cake and drinking two sips of black tea, Nicolas slowly told his guess.
"Phineas may not know this, but Albus, you know that I once spent some time in the Department of Mysteries."
Hearing this, Phineas asked in confusion,
"Senior Nicolas, aren't you French? How come you work for the British Ministry of Magic?"
Nicolas said with a smile,
"Phineas, you don't think there is only one Department of Mysteries in the entire wizarding world, and only one mysterious veil leading to death?"
Phineas shook his head.
"Of course not. If the door was really that valuable, wouldn't the elders have taken it over from the Ministry of Magic?"
Nicolas nodded and said,
"That's true. There are many such doors in the wizarding world. They are roughly the locations where all the Ministries of Magic known today are located."
Phineas finally understood why there were only a few countries in Europe, such as Britain, France and Germany, that had Ministries of Magic, and even in the entire wizarding world there were only three Ministries of Magic in Europe, one in America, three in Asia and two in Africa. It turned out that the establishment of the Ministry of Magic depended on that door.
Nicolas continued.
"Although that's what I said, I did work at the Department of Mysteries in the UK. That was about a hundred years ago. At that time, the British Ministry of Magic decided to study that door again, so they found me and hoped that I could participate and provide some help. Because I was also very interested in the door that was said to be linked to death, so I went there."
"After some research, we did get some results. However, due to some special considerations, we did not tell the Ministry of Magic about these findings. Instead, we decided to keep it secret. Speaking of which, the Unspeakables in the Department of Mysteries in that area are almost dead now. Even if they have become legends, it is estimated that they are almost dead by now."
"Okay, back to the point. We found that the door does lead to death, or in other words, it is the only passage between the underworld and the human world. The grim reaper passes through this door to the human world and reaps souls."
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone present, including Dumbledore, looked shocked. Even though Dumbledore and Phineas had actually made some guesses, they were still shocked because Nicoloas's words were so certain, as if he had witnessed the appearance of the grim reaper.
"Yes, that's right, we saw the Grim Reaper."
Then Nicolas said these scary words.
"In the past, there was a very magical artifact in the Department of Mysteries. It was a monocle eye. The material was unknown. However, through that eye, one could see the souls of those who were about to die. We made corresponding inferences because all these souls gathered at that door at that time, so we arranged people to wait there. Sure enough, on the day I was on duty, I saw Him walk out of that door and take away the soul of a legendary wizard."
Dumbledore suddenly spoke at this time.
"Sure enough, I had always been puzzled by something—why, in all the thousands of years of the magical world, had no legendary wizard's soul ever survived? At first, I thought perhaps they all chose to embrace death willingly. But Tom's return made me realize the truth: even legendary wizards aren't so eager to die."
Nicolas nodded and said,
"That's right. After that, we witnessed the Grim Reaper appear many times, and each time, he personally took away the soul of a legendary wizard. Eventually, we came to a conclusion: souls below the level of Creation are drawn toward the Door naturally and will pass through it willingly—if they accept death. But once a soul reaches the Legendary level, it transcends humanity and enters what we call the realm of demigods. At that stage, the Door no longer has power over them. That's why the Grim Reaper himself must intervene. Every demigod's soul is personally escorted to the underworld upon death."
Phineas suddenly interrupted.
"But, as far as I know, demigod is a realm above legend. To reach that realm, one needs to become a god within a certain period of time, otherwise one will die, and death is inevitable."
Nicolas smiled and shook his head.
"What you said is a common saying after all. But in fact, according to my research, being able to control people's souls has actually transcended the level of humans. Combined with the matter of the grim reaper, it is no problem that legends are demigods. As for the realm you mentioned, it can actually be said to be a situation between legends and gods, and it also belongs to the realm of legends."
"Your so-called demigods," Nicolas said calmly, "are nothing more than Legends who have ignited their divine fire. There are two common ways to achieve this. The first is to establish a church, gather followers, and use their faith as fuel to sustain the divine fire. This is the path taken by the Council of Elders. In truth, the Council itself is their church, and all wizards are their unwitting believers."
"The second path is far rarer in today's magical world—to trace the roots. According to ancient legend, this was how the earliest gods first came into being."
Phineas felt his heart skip a beat. That was the very path he was walking now—the same path once tread by the three great founders.
Nico went on.
"As for what you mentioned—that failing to become a god means certain death—there's a reason for that. Once divine fire is ignited, it starts consuming everything the wizard has built up over their lifetime. First it burns through their magical accumulation. Then it devours their magic itself, then their mind, and finally... their soul. The divine fire, once lit, cannot be extinguished. So yes—if one cannot reach godhood in time, death is inevitable."
"Even with thousands of years of preparation, the divine fire can only burn for a century. But the old ones on the Council have lived for millennia. Their immense accumulation allows them to fuel the divine fire for up to a thousand years. That's why it's nearly impossible to become a god without joining the Council—because they can safely ignite their divine fire at the end of one era and bide their time until the next era begins. Then they ascend the divine ladder."
"But it's a gamble. No one knows how many places will be available for godhood in the next era. That uncertainty is the Council's greatest risk—and their greatest secret."
"Hey, I'm off topic again. That's basically what happened with the door. It's not really the main point. The main point is the Grim Reaper. I don't know what you think the Grim Reaper looks like, but the truth about the Grim Reaper has puzzled me for a long time."
"The Grim Reaper looks almost the same as the Dementors, with the only difference being some details. They both wear a cloak, look like they have been soaked in water, have scabby palms, and their entire bodies look like they have been rotten. However, their bodies are more thoroughly rotten, with almost no flesh on them, just bones. They hold a huge sickle in their hands, which is wrapped with huge chains, and they will not suck away the happiness of those around them."
"This discovery has aroused our interest in Dementors, magical creatures that suddenly appear,"
"Suddenly appeared?"
It was Phineas who spoke again. He suddenly realized that even though he had read many secret books in the Council of Elders, there were still many secrets in the magic world that he didn't know.
This time it was Dumbledore who spoke up, and Nicole took the opportunity to take a break and drink some tea.
"Yes, Dementors appeared suddenly. According to records, there were no such creatures as Dementors in the world before that. Suddenly one day, they appeared in Azkaban and have lived there ever since. They rarely move around in the wizarding world."
Nicolas nodded and added,
"Actually, there is still some gap. After discovering that there might be some connection between the Grim Reaper and the Dementors, we went to Azkaban. As a result, guess what we found under Azkaban, at the bottom of the sea?"
Hearing Nicolas's sudden mischief, Phineas and the other two rolled their eyes and didn't say anything. Nicolas didn't care and gave the answer directly."
"Another Death's Door. Yes, you heard it right. There is another Death's Door leading to the underworld in Azkaban. However, that door collapsed for unknown reasons. So we speculate that the so-called Dementors suddenly appeared because they walked out of that door, and then the door collapsed, and they couldn't go back. In fact, because of the appearance of the Grim Reaper, we think that the Grim Reaper might have been a Dementor before, or that the Dementors are actually the descendants of the Grim Reaper, or a race of the Grim Reaper."
Sirius asked about Nicolas's main purpose in telling these past events.
"Although these things are shocking, what does this have to do with the return of Peter and you-know-who?"
Phineas said solemnly,
"If what Senior Nicolas said is true, then it does matter."
He slowly expressed his thoughts.
"If Dementors and Death are the same race, then souls may not be food for them, but a necessary instinct, just like a job, and the Dementor's Kiss is another way to take souls to the underworld besides that door."
Nicolas nodded in praise.
"Phineas's guess is what I want to say. It is very possible, because only in this way can it explain why Peter, whom you mentioned, was able to regain his soul after being given the Dementor's Kiss."
"So, his body should have been pushed into that door as well. However, what you and the Ministry of Magic didn't expect was that his soul and body were in the same place, and he didn't die."