"Why are you resigning? You've been here for ten years. Is there something wrong?"
Kruger stood up directly from her chair.
If it were an ordinary employee, she wouldn't have reacted like this, but Hilke was no ordinary employee. Ever since she had taken over as the Head of the Department of Mysteries, she had been grooming Hilke as her successor.
Hilke's expression was calm, and she shook her head.
"There is nothing wrong with the Department; it is my own problem."
She didn't explain herself clearly, and Kruger didn't press her, simply saying earnestly,
"You need to think this through, Vera. You should know what the Ministry's arrangements for your future are if you stay. And if you leave, where else can you go?"
Hilke didn't speak immediately, but as if she had thought of something, the corners of her mouth curled up slightly, revealing a smile that Kruger had never seen since she had known her.
"I have always had a place to go," she said gently. "It's just that I lost it before, and now I have found him again."
Kruger finally agreed to Hilke's resignation application.
If she was determined to leave, no one would or needed to force her to stay.
After leaving the German Ministry of Magic, Hilke went directly to Diagon Alley in Britain.
From the vault Eddie had left for her, she took out the money she had saved from her work over the years, along with a portion of the assets Eddie had left for her. She exchanged it all for pounds at Gringotts, then brought the money to Magnolia Crescent in Little Whinging, Surrey.
She looked at Number 12, then chose Number 13 from the neighbouring houses, Numbers 13 and 14, and knocked on the door.
A middle-aged woman opened the door, frowning as she looked at the strangely dressed woman.
"Who are you looking for?"
"I want to buy your house." Hilke said this as plainly as if she had taken a fancy to a nice teacup in a shop.
The woman looked at her as if she were looking at a lunatic.
"Sorry, I don't intend to sell my house..."
"The average house price in Britain is about £60,000, but the location here is average, so the price is expected to be lower than the average." She spoke softly, clearly having done her homework and seemingly wanting to bargain.
The expression on the woman's face became more and more impatient, and she reached out to close the door. At this moment, Hilke silently opened the briefcase in her hand, revealing the brand-new banknotes inside that still smelled of ink.
"Here is £200,000. If you think the price is right, we can go and handle the paperwork now. But no matter how long the paperwork takes, please, you must move out within a week."
When the middle-aged woman heard what she said and looked at the suitcase full of money, she was stunned on the spot. It took a while for her to come back to her senses. Her breathing became heavy as she stared at the dazzling banknotes, then shouted the name of the master of the house loudly into the house.
"Mark! My God! Come out quickly! Mark!"
...
Sherlock knew nothing about what Hilke was doing right now.
He was in his office, explaining to Snape in the simplest way possible what the magic notebook he had asked him to give to Lily was for.
"The Soul Protection Charm allows one person's soul to protect the soul of another person they love. This is the method Lily used to protect Harry under the Dark Lord's Killing Curse."
"And there is another evil soul magic. I don't know if you have heard of it, but it is called a Horcrux."
Snape frowned in disgust when he heard him mention the name of a Horcrux.
"That magic that splits the soul to make oneself immortal?"
As a former expert researcher in the Dark Arts, Snape had naturally heard of Horcruxes.
But he had only heard of them. Very few methods for creating Horcruxes had been passed down, and even fewer people knew the specific method of this magic. As far as he knew, only Lord Voldemort had the talent and ability to learn it without regard for the consequences.
Shaluo snapped his fingers.
"That's right, it's a Horcrux. With Amy's help, I found the method for creating a Horcrux in the Death Chamber of the Department of Mysteries. I feel that this Dark magic actually has some overlap with the Soul Protection Charm."
"It's just that one requires extreme malice, while the other requires extreme love."
"Then, with the help of other magical materials, I tried to take the parts of the Horcrux magic that could be used and combine them with the Soul Protection Charm."
At this point, Snape could already guess some of Sherlock's ideas. Besides, he had roughly flipped through the contents of the notebook before giving it to Lily.
"You wanted the Soul Protection Charm to not only attach soul protection to the protected person when it takes effect, but also to split a part of the protector's soul over!"
Sherlock shrugged.
"At first, my idea was indeed like that: to let Lily's soul split while also gaining the advantage of a Horcrux's immortality. Using the Soul Protection Charm as a carrier, I wanted the magic protecting Harry to become a special Horcrux, with a part of Lily's soul residing in Harry."
"Did you succeed?"
Snape clenched his fists subconsciously and asked excitedly.
"It's not that simple. Ideas are just ideas, after all. Only when you actually research them do you realise that to split a soul, you must sacrifice a soul, and this soul naturally cannot be Lily herself. And love cannot replace malice; the creation of a Horcrux requires powerful malice, which Lily certainly did not possess."
Snape took a deep breath. He glared at Sherlock, trying hard to control his emotions, because, after all, he was the one asking for help now.
"Then what did you achieve?"
Sherlock said gravely,
"I discovered that wanting to integrate the Horcrux creation method harmlessly into the Soul Protection Charm was my wishful thinking. Magic of this level is not that easy to change, let alone merge with other magic."
"So later I abandoned the idea of trying to modify the Horcrux creation method and came up with another idea instead."
Sherlock's eyes brightened.
"Drawing on Horcrux magic, I created a form of soul magic based on the Soul Protection Charm that has a similar effect to a Horcrux but is not as evil."
"But after a series of experiments, I found that this is also very difficult. Although all magic released by Wizards requires emotion—malice is powerful, and love is just as powerful—the fundamental purpose of tearing the soul is for one's own immortality, which is selfish in itself, and the emotion is therefore more inclined towards the negative."
"However, there is always a way. If we change the purpose of splitting the soul from immortality to the protector's obsession with seeing the protected person safe and sound, then such an emotion is love."
"There is a lot of information in the Hall of Souls in the Department of Mysteries. I studied a great deal of it, perfected the theory, and the final result is the magic notebook I gave you."
Speaking of this, Sherlock picked up the cup on his desk and took a few sips of tea. He looked at Snape, who was waiting anxiously for him to reveal the final result and, although impatient, still had to endure listening to him brag about his achievements. Sherlock finally said with satisfaction,
"The improved Soul Protection Charm, theoretically speaking, will preserve some of the protector's consciousness."
Snape's face darkened.
"Is it not a soul? Why do you say it is consciousness again?"
Sherlock frowned at this moment.
"You can call it a soul if you want. Actually, I'm not sure what exactly the thing that remains should be called. If you say what is split is a soul, then without the situation of sacrificing a life, even if the emotion of love is strong, the soul will not split. But if it is not a soul, according to my final research results, the consciousness left behind by the Soul Protection Charm is no different from the protector themselves."
He stroked his chin and thought.
"If I have to give it a definition, it's more like a copy of the soul."
"A copy?"
"Yes, because the soul itself has not been split. It is more like using soul magic to complete a copy."
"Then is there any possibility of resurrection for the soul copied in this way?" Snape asked, muttering.
"That's hard to say." Sherlock shook his head. "The copied soul needs to rely on the protection magic to survive, and whether it is just consciousness or a real soul is still up for debate."
Having said this, Sherlock glanced at him.
"Besides, isn't it too early for you to ask these things? I told you, these are all just theories I've researched. Whether they can succeed is another matter. Don't get so excited yet. I'm afraid the higher your hopes, the greater your disappointment."
His persuasion didn't seem to have any good effect. Snape's complexion was still paler than usual, clearly a bit overly nervous.
The two sat quietly in the office for a while, then Snape took a deep breath and stood up from his chair.
"I'll go get Harry!"
Sherlock poured himself another cup of tea and nodded, signalling that he would wait in the office.
Yesterday, the final exam week had just ended, and there was still a full week until Hogwarts' holiday this year.
It wouldn't be the holidays until the Professors of each subject had graded the students' results.
And this week, starting today, was the most relaxing time for the students in the Castle.
Harry and Ron chatted until the early hours of the morning and finally fell asleep.
They didn't wake up until noon the next day. After eating lunch in the Great Hall, they played Wizard's Chess in the Common Room while talking about what had happened the previous night.
Even though the exams were over, Hermione was still holding a thick spell analysis book, telling Harry and the others about her discoveries.
"I heard from Lavender that she saw Snape in the corridor this morning."
Harry, who was directing the soldiers on the chessboard to move forward, was stunned for a moment.
"Snape is back? That proves Professor Cavendish has returned too!"
"Should we go to the Professor's office to visit him later?" Ron didn't have much interest in playing chess either; he wanted to know what had happened when Sherlock and Snape disappeared at that time.
Harry stood up from the sofa.
"Why wait a while? We can go directly right now."
They left the chessboard together, leaving the pieces, which had been fighting halfway through but now had both commanders desert, to keep cursing.
(Cowards! Come back and fight!)
However, before Harry and the others had even gotten out of the Common Room, they bumped into Snape, who was wearing a black robe, his face unreadable, and walking in a hurry.
"Potter!"
He called out Harry's surname, his voice sounding as though he was trying to suppress something.
The three of them stopped. Hermione and Ron both instinctively felt some fear and avoided his gaze.
Only Harry glared at him full of anger, because he still remembered what had happened the previous night.
Snape was in no mood to care about their emotions at the moment and directly grabbed Harry's arm.
"You come with me!"
Harry struggled subconsciously.
"Where are you taking me?"
"Don't move!" Snape stared at him with his gloomy, hollow eyes. In those eyes, which were like black holes, there seemed to be a light that had never been there before!
"You'd better listen to me now. Come with me alone!"
Harry was also scared and was pulled by the arm, walking towards Sherlock's office almost unconsciously.
At the entrance of the Gryffindor Common Room, only Ron and Hermione, who were full of worry and didn't know what had happened, remained, looking at each other.
"What should we do now?" Ron asked.
Hermione said worriedly,
"Is it possible that Snape wants to force Harry to reveal Black's whereabouts?"
Thinking of the crazy way Snape had looked when he saw Sirius the previous night, Ron couldn't help but shiver.
"Very possible!"
Hermione paced back and forth nervously, then said firmly,
"Let's go find Professor Dumbledore! Only he can stop Snape!"
And just when Hermione and the others were guessing wildly, Snape had already half-forced Harry back to Sherlock's office.
Harry had thought of the same thing as Hermione on the way, and he tried to struggle and run away, but the hand Snape used to grab his arm was like an iron clamp, impossible to pry open.
It wasn't until he realised that they had finally arrived at Sherlock's office that Harry's nervous and uneasy heart finally settled slightly.
Entering the office, before Harry could speak, Sherlock put down the teacup in his hand and looked at him seriously.
"There is a very important matter. I will make it clear to you, Harry. Now sit down first."
Harry sat in the chair, looking blank, while Snape said impatiently,
"Don't dally any longer!"
"As the person involved, Harry must understand some things." Sherlock said gravely. Then he looked at Harry. "Have you heard any strange voices when you were emotionally agitated?"
Harry didn't react for a moment. He looked at Sherlock, appearing very confused.
"W-what voice?"
"Your mother's voice."
The pupils in Harry's eyes shrank suddenly, and his eyes opened wide.
"H-how do you know, Professor?"
Seeing his reaction, a smile appeared on Sherlock's face, and he nodded affirmatively to the nervous Snape.