Professor Vampire.

Chapter 298: One life for another?

"What are you going to do next?"

Standing on the top of the astronomy tower of Hogwarts Castle, Dracula asked softly.

"I'm still thinking." Dumbledore played with the resurrection stone ring, his eyes deep, "Now it seems that compared with the power of the god of death, the threat of Voldemort himself is not so important."

"That's not the case," Dracula said, "If there are no holders of those Horcruxes, the power of the god of death will hardly affect the world...so this threat is still brought by Voldemort."

"But what we can't figure out now is, what is the purpose of the so-called god of death?" Dumbledore frowned and said slowly, "If we can't find his purpose, it will be difficult for us to make targeted countermeasures."

"It should be found soon." Dracula smiled casually, "As long as he is still using those Horcrux holders to "If you can't make trouble everywhere, it proves that the god of death is not without desires."

"But the appearance of the god of death is beyond our previous plan after all." Dumbledore said in a deep voice, "The magic world is going to be in chaos, and those ordinary people are not ready to face the chaos..."

"Hehe, there is no need to be so entangled." Dracula suddenly raised his mouth, and a trace of contempt appeared in his eyes, "I have tried it, the so-called god of death is not invincible... I think so, if it is really invincible, why would it use the Horcrux to secretly hinder the magic world?"

"What's more, what does the chaos in the magic world have to do with me? The more chaotic this world is, the more fun it may be to find?"

From the beginning to the end, Dracula and Dumbledore's paths are different.

He is not interested in Dumbledore's behavior of saving the magic world from fire and water and being the pillar of the magic world, and he is not interested in spending time and effort to quell the chaos in the magic world.

More than four years ago, the Mirror of Erised had already confirmed everything - Dracula has always been a character who fears chaos in the world!

He was willing to fight Voldemort with Dumbledore only because of his friendship with the headmaster and students in Hogwarts over the past few years, plus his previous feud with Voldemort... This does not mean that he is on the side of justice.

On the contrary, Dracula is happy to see the chaos that is almost destined to come to the magic world.

He even wants to help speed up the chaos himself, and he already has a plan, a very simple plan...

At this time, Dumbledore suddenly said: "Professor Dracula, what do you think... If we can get behind that door, can we face the god of death head-on?"

He stared at the ring in his hand, his eyes became very deep.

"Then how are you going to get out of there? Unless there are special circumstances, that door is a dead end." Dracula raised his eyebrows and chuckled, "Are you going to sacrifice your life and stay there forever?"

"I'm just thinking... If he wants to get rid of the Horcrux fragments on Harry, maybe he needs a guide."

Dumbledore's voice was very soft, but with Dracula's hearing, he could hear it very clearly.

The smile on Dracula's face instantly withdrew.

"Are you serious?" He stared straight into Dumbledore's eyes and asked seriously.

"I'm just thinking of a possibility." Dumbledore shook his head and said gently, "I couldn't think of a more suitable way before, but now, maybe there is a better way for us to choose..."

Dumbledore took out his wand again and inserted it vertically into the ring.

"There's one thing missing, and I actually know where it is." He said softly, "It is said that if you collect all three, you can become the master of the god of death..."

Dracula stared at the wand in Dumbledore's hand.

He never thought that the Elder Wand, one of the three Deathly Hallows in the legend, had always been in Dumbledore's hands.

"Do you actually believe this rumor?" Dracula frowned and asked, "I don't see how these so-called Deathly Hallows can be better than normal alchemical products."

"I don't believe it either." Dumbledore smiled softly, "But they may give us a chance to face the god of death head-on."

"I think we should at least give it a try."

...

Dracula had no intention of staying in Hogwarts, nor did he ask where the last Deathly Hallows was, nor did he verify with Dumbledore whether synthesizing the three Deathly Hallows could make him the master of the god of death as the legend said.

He was not interested in these, but was vaguely worried about some of Dumbledore's ideas and trends.

Although he just said he could try, Dumbledore's tone was not joking... He seemed to really want to enter the realm of death himself and was ready not to come back.

Dracula knew very well that there was a fragment of Voldemort's soul in Harry Potter, and unlike other Horcruxes, this fragment had completely merged with Harry's own soul.

In order to completely destroy this fragment, Harry's soul must be affected in the same way.

In other words... Harry Potter is almost certain to die!

After death, a wizard often has two choices-

One is to continue to move forward bravely, and there will be no trace of the wizard's real existence in the world; the other is that the obsession in the heart makes the wizard tethered to the world and turned into a ghost, just like Nick who almost lost his head, just like Helena.

Harry's situation is even more special.

Because his mother, Lily Potter, had used all her strength to use blood magic to cast a protective magic in Harry's blood that was strong enough to resist the great wizard.

In order to fight against this magic, Voldemort deliberately used Harry's blood when he was resurrected, so that this protective magic also flowed through his body.

Although he was finally able to ignore Lily's protection and touch Harry, another fatal flaw appeared-

Voldemort would not be able to kill Harry.

The protection of blood magic entered Voldemort's body, so if Voldemort was not dead, Harry would still be protected. The magic that was supposed to dissipate when Harry came of age was unexpectedly delayed.

In addition, Voldemort still had a soul fragment in Harry's body, so the two of them formed a cycle, and no one could kill the other...

If they wanted to break this cycle, they could only break it by themselves.

Either Harry abandoned the blood protection in his body, let Voldemort lose this protection, and then die with the soul fragment in his body; or after all other Horcruxes were destroyed, Voldemort personally destroyed the soul fragment in Harry's body, making himself lose his immortal body...

Obviously, in comparison, the latter method is more feasible.

Dracula guessed that Dumbledore wanted to go ahead and reach the narrow gap between life and death, the Limbo.

Harry's soul would not be truly damaged if he just killed Voldemort's soul fragments, so in addition to continuing to walk and turning into a soul, there was a third option - turning back and returning to the human world.

But how could the Limbo be easily escaped?

There must be a person with a strong enough soul as a guide to reach the narrow gap between life and death first and guide Harry to turn back.

Dracula frowned tightly on the way back to Dracula's castle.

There were not many people he could count as friends, and Dumbledore was one of them now. He couldn't let him treat himself as a chess piece and count his life.

But Dumbledore, a stubborn person, might have made a decision that was difficult to stop.

Fortunately, Dracula knew someone... If it was him, he might be able to change Dumbledore's mind.

Dracula's wings suddenly flapped and changed the direction of flight.

...

On the other side, Harry was already waiting alone in the Hogwarts headmaster's office.

During the time when the Ministry of Magic drove Dumbledore away from here, Umbridge tried her best to enter this office, but the gargoyle stone beast guarding the door easily let Harry in.

Outside the window, a plain gray-blue color hung in the sky, and dawn was slowly approaching.

The office was quiet, everything was motionless, and only the occasional snoring of a sleeping headmaster's portrait would break the tranquility here.

Harry gently took out a transparent glass ball, which seemed to have a pearly white picture playing inside, but it was not clear.

This was what Voldemort had calculated to get, so he deliberately used the connection between him and Harry's scar to lie to him that Sirius was in the Department of Mysteries, just to let Harry take the prophecy ball off the shelf with his own hands.

Harry was very painful.

It was because of his mistake that his friends and the members of the Order of the Phoenix were put in danger. If he had even considered what Hermione had said, that Voldemort might be taking advantage of his enthusiasm for being a hero...

Just then, Dumbledore's figure rose from the spiral staircase.

"I guess you have a lot of questions to ask me now, Harry." He said to Harry in a gentle tone while walking slowly.

Harry turned around, his eyes reddened involuntarily.

"Professor, I... it's all my fault..." Seeing Dumbledore again, the emotions he had been holding back for a long time finally came out, and his tone seemed a little trembling, "It's all because of my arrogance that you are in danger..."

Dumbledore did not answer Harry's question immediately, but walked to the perch by the door.

Then, he took out a young, ugly, featherless Fawkes from the pocket inside his robe and gently placed it on a plate of fine ash under the gilded perch, where the adult Fawkes usually stayed.

"Oh, Harry," Dumbledore finally walked away from the young phoenix and said to Harry, "You will be glad to hear that none of your classmates will suffer long-term pain because of what happened last night."

Harry wanted to squeeze out the word "good", but no sound came out.

In his opinion, Dumbledore was reminding him that he almost caused heavy losses to the students and the Order of the Phoenix.

Although Dumbledore's eyes were only looking directly at him this time, and his attitude was gentle and kind, and he was not blaming him at all, Harry still couldn't bear to look him in the face.

"Madam Pomfrey is treating them," Dumbledore continued, "Nymphadora Tonks may need to stay in St. Mungo's Hospital for a while, but it seems that she will recover soon."

Harry could only nod at the carpet, which became brighter and brighter as the sky outside gradually brightened.

"Please sit down." Dumbledore's tone became gentler, and he didn't seem to blame him at all.

Harry hesitated, then slowly walked across the carpet that was golden in the sunlight and sat down opposite Dumbledore.

"Professor..."

"Harry, I owe you an explanation," Dumbledore said suddenly before Harry asked the question, "an explanation of the mistakes made by the elderly."

"Because I now realize that all the things I have done and not done about you have the shortcomings of older people."

"Young people don't know what older people think or feel, but if older people forget what it was like when they were young, it would be a big mistake... It seems that I have forgotten it recently..."

The sun has risen, and the mountains are showing a dazzling orange-yellow light edge, and the sky above is colorless and bright. The light shines on Dumbledore, falling on his gray eyebrows, beard, and deep wrinkles.

"Fifteen years ago," Dumbledore said softly, "when I saw the scar on your forehead, I was wondering what it meant. I thought it might be a sign of some kind of connection between you and Voldemort."

"You told me this before, Professor." Harry said slowly.

"Yes," Dumbledore nodded gently, "Yes, but it is necessary to start with your scar. Because obviously, shortly after you returned to the magical world, my guess has been confirmed-"

"Whenever Voldemort appears near you, your scar will give you some signs or feel other strong emotions."

Harry nodded.

Every time Voldemort shows any strong emotions, or his power is restored, or he appears next to Harry, the scar on Harry's forehead will feel intense pain.

"You can sense Voldemort's presence, even when he's in disguise, and you can tell how he feels when he's emotionally high...Your ability has become more and more pronounced since he returned to his body and regained his full strength."

Sure enough, Dumbledore's statement was completely consistent with Harry's experience.

"Recently," Dumbledore continued, "I began to worry that Voldemort might be aware of such a connection between you. Sure enough, he became aware of your presence when you penetrated his mind and thoughts."

Harry raised his eyes and saw that Dumbledore's face was a little tired at this time.

"Yes," Harry murmured, "Yes, I had never realized it before."

"You see," Dumbledore continued, "Voldemort intends to enter your mind, control and mislead your thoughts. I believe he had this idea not long ago..."

"As Voldemort proved tonight, his purpose in controlling you is not to destroy me, but to destroy you. Just when he temporarily controlled you just now, he hoped that I would sacrifice you to kill him."

Dumbledore sighed deeply.

What Harry didn't know was that if he wanted to completely get rid of Voldemort, he would almost certainly not survive.

And the great headmaster in front of him was thinking about how to use his own aging life in exchange for the survival of Harry, a young man...