On the other side—
After parting ways with Dumbledore, Avery frowned and replayed their conversation in his mind.
He began to reflect on whether his recent behavior had been inappropriate.
Out of a vague sense of unease and distrust, he did not want anyone to know what had happened to him.
After all, as a soon-to-graduate pure-blood wizard, he understood just how unbelievable resurrection was—and how much it would attract envy.
"Looks like I need to be more careful about this... change things gradually," Avery muttered to himself as he waited for the staircase to shift.
He slapped his cheeks lightly and took a deep breath, trying to pull himself together.
But the lingering stench of dungbombs in the castle made his expression darken, and he couldn't help but cough repeatedly.
Damn it.
What was going on with the school? Since when did Peeves dare to act this recklessly?
Avery sighed inwardly at how things had deteriorated.
When the staircase finally reached the first floor, he immediately jumped off and rushed out of the castle, gulping down the fresh air.
The sun was shining brightly.
In the middle of winter, such sunlight was rare.
It hung high in the sky, doing its best to melt the thin layer of snow on the ground. A few students ran around laughing and playing.
Owls flew through the clouds, and a snow-white raven darted back and forth, occasionally letting out sharp cries as if searching for something.
Avery lingered in the moment, savoring the peaceful scene.
Then, controlling the unfamiliar body he now inhabited, he moved away from the crowd and toward the edge of the Black Lake.
The frozen surface reflected the face of Lee Jordan.
Avery unconsciously reached out, his fingertip touching the ice.
At that moment—
Dawn, after a brief thought, detached himself from Avery's back and flew up into the canopy of a nearby tree.
Hidden among the branches, he returned to his original form and cast a Disillusionment Charm.
Then, he levitated his wizard robes and let them carry him silently back toward Avery.
The moment their lines of sight aligned...
°Legilimency°
Dawn cast the spell without hesitation. He wanted to confirm whether his suspicion was correct.
Avery stood by the lake, watching the water move beneath the ice.
Unknowingly, his thoughts drifted back to the miracle that had happened to him.
He knew the truth.
He had already died.
He had died on January 16th, on the Quidditch pitch—killed by Dawn's scheme.
And yet...
When his halted consciousness began moving again, when he opened his eyes
.. He had become Lee Jordan, a fourth-year Gryffindor.
And more than that... Nearly a year had passed since his death.
Avery placed a hand over his chest, as if he could still feel the cold pain of the Killing Curse striking him.
To be honest, aside from the joy of being alive again, what he felt more was confusion.
He had no idea how his resurrection had happened.
And after learning everything that had occurred after his death, he didn't even know what he was supposed to do now.
His father was dead.
Once, Avery had believed he could change everything.
He had thought the corpse he saw was just a substitute, something he would replace after returning to the past to save his father.
But now...
It all seemed painfully naive.
Not only had he failed, but the Avery family had collapsed. The only remaining member was his uncle.
Even though he was alive again…
Avery let out a bitter laugh.
"With how I look now... can I even still be considered part of the Avery family?"
He looked at his reflection on the ice—the dark skin, the braided hair.
He sighed.
With this appearance, how could he possibly restore the family?
Even if he married and had children in the future, they would no longer truly belong to the Avery line.
For a moment, despair washed over him.
It felt as though living again held no meaning.
But then—
A face appeared in his mind.
Dawn.
Even if reduced to ashes, he would never forget that face.
Avery's expression hardened.
No.
He couldn't just sink into despair. He still had revenge to take.
From what he had heard over the past few days, Dawn was not dead. Not only that, he had even invaded Hogwarts not long ago.
That Killing Curse back then hadn't killed him.
Avery didn't know why.
But he couldn't help thinking... Perhaps being brought back to life was a second chance.
A chance to correct his failure.
His fists slowly clenched.
What he didn't know was that every single one of these thoughts was being observed.
Dawn hovered above the ice, carried by his robes, a faint cold smile on his lips.
He wouldn't mind killing Avery a second time.
But more importantly, these memories confirmed his suspicion.
Lee's body now housed Avery.
After reviewing everything, Dawn withdrew his Legilimency.
Once he fully understood the mechanism behind this, he would send Avery back to hell.
He had no intention of keeping an enemy alive.
After glancing once more at Avery sitting by the lake, Dawn lifted himself into the air, avoiding all sightlines.
Then he transformed into a beetle and flew back toward the castle.
Now that he knew Avery's secret, there wasn't much more to gain from him in the short term.
From Avery's memories, it was clear he knew very little about the resurrection itself.
So, Dawn decided to use this time to search the castle.
He wanted to determine how many others, like Lee Jordan, had been replaced.
And whether any of them were connected to "world correction."
There was also—
The Weasley twins.
The way they had brought Lee to that tree and said those words at that exact moment...
What had they been thinking?
Dawn flapped his wings and descended toward a group of students playing in the snow.
However, though his idea sounded good, putting it into practice proved difficult.
His understanding of the students came only from limited classroom interactions and from possibly unreliable memories of the original story.
Had their personalities changed?
Dawn, disguised as a beetle, lingered among them for quite a while but couldn't make any definite judgments.
In the end, he had no choice but to rely on Legilimency to check their memories directly.
But after scanning several students, he found nothing unusual. And given his caution, he couldn't act too freely inside the castle.
At that moment, he couldn't help but regret not acting like a more attentive professor earlier in the term.
After circling the castle once, Dawn decided to check on the Weasley twins.
But even that plan didn't go smoothly.
After searching for a while, he finally found them—inside the Transfiguration classroom.
They were apologizing to Professor McGonagall for sneaking out at night.
They sincerely promised that in the upcoming Quidditch match, they would defeat Slytherin and make up for the points they had lost.
Dawn folded his wings and landed on the windowsill outside the classroom, waiting for them to leave.
But...
He ended up waiting until sunset.
The twins seemed to have endless things to say.
They chatted with McGonagall about Quidditch matches from different countries, even asking questions about Transfiguration along the way.
Dawn clicked his tongue, narrowing his eyes.
Something about this felt very wrong.
___________
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