Chapter 98. The Note
After returning to Hogwarts, Adrian Wesson had Rai watch the owls' movements every morning.
Every few days, a parcel would be delivered to Professor Quirrell's office.
That meant Adrian's guess back in Knockturn Alley was, in all likelihood, correct.
And from what Adrian observed, Quirrell's mental state was highly unstable.
That was probably because Quirrell was using certain magical materials to keep himself alive.
Of course, Quirrell still roamed the Forbidden Forest at night, trying to hunt unicorns.
After all, unicorn blood worked far better than whatever Lucius had given him.
There was even one time when Adrian and Hagrid nearly caught that figure during a night patrol, but he still got away.
On yet another night, Hagrid and Adrian were patrolling the Forbidden Forest together.
In the original timeline, around this point, Quirrell would deliberately "lose" a dragon egg to Hagrid and then wheedle the three-headed dog's weakness out of him.
This time, however, things seemed different. Hagrid still hadn't received that dragon egg.
When Adrian brought up the matter of a dragon egg—
"Ah, dragons," Hagrid said with a sigh. "Where did Professor Kettleburn get Torch, anyway?"
"Who knows," Adrian said offhandedly.
Hagrid's eyes shone, and he said longingly, "I dream of raising a dragon. I've even got a name picked out—Norbert. What do you think, Adrian?"
It looked like Hagrid truly hadn't got that dragon egg yet.
Which made sense—so much of the original plot had already been altered.
"By the way," Hagrid suddenly remembered something, turned to Adrian, and said excitedly, "I haven't visited Torch in months. Could I go see him this weekend? He must've grown so much!"
"Er…" Adrian turned to Hagrid and said, "Did I not tell you Professor Kettleburn already took Torch?"
Hagrid stopped dead in his tracks. His lantern fell to the ground with a clatter.
"What?" he said, flustered. "You never told me that!"
Adrian also halted and explained, "About three or four months ago. He's already left Britain."
Hearing this, Hagrid picked up the lantern again and asked anxiously, "Then can I still see Torch?"
As much as Adrian wanted to say yes, he told Hagrid honestly, "Probably not."
Hagrid slumped at once and said in a low voice, "You should've told me earlier. I could've gone to see Torch one last time."
Seeing Hagrid, like a sulking child several hundred pounds in size, Adrian couldn't help but wear an apologetic look.
After all, Professor Kettleburn's message had come in a rush, and Adrian had simply packed Torch into a case and brought him to Kettleburn.
All through the rest of the patrol, Hagrid remained in a foul mood; clearly, not being able to see Torch had left him truly heartsore.
The good news was that the Forbidden Forest was quiet that night. Nothing suspicious turned up.
It was already one in the morning by the time Adrian returned to Hogwarts Castle.
Even so, he still ran into Filch on patrol in the corridors.
Filch was indefatigable; even at one in the morning he was making his rounds.
He even took Adrian for a student out of bed at night, which made Adrian feel as if he'd gone back to his schooldays.
Back then, he'd run into Filch during his own nocturnal wanderings—but he'd had to avoid that annoying fellow.
At last, reaching the door of his office, Adrian suddenly noticed a crumpled note wedged into the crack.
He frowned and pulled it out. The ragged, uneven tear along the edge showed it had been ripped hastily from a book or notebook.
There hadn't been any note there when he'd gone out that afternoon.
Well… maybe there had?
He had never exactly paid attention to the crack under his office door.
Turning the note over in his hand and wondering when it had appeared, Adrian pushed the door open.
The office showed no sign of being disturbed.
After sitting down, Adrian looked at the note.
The writing was crooked, chaotic, and all in a jumble—very hard to decipher, as if it had been scribbled in a state of extreme panic.
At length, after several minutes of effort, Adrian pieced together the contents:
Please save me, drive him out! He has seized my body by force. I don't know what to do—save me. You can do it, like before!
A passage steeped in despair.
Adrian held the note in silence for a while.
The author of the note was self-evident.
Who else could it be but Quirrell himself?
It seemed Voldemort was in the process of wresting Quirrell's body from him.
Something must have happened recently to make Quirrell and Voldemort fall out.
Adrian could practically picture the note's origin:
Voldemort wanted complete control of Quirrell's body. Quirrell resisted. Voldemort then began using some method to seize Quirrell's body by force. In the end, remembering how Adrian had once used a golden apple to drive Voldemort out of him, Quirrell took advantage of a moment when Voldemort wasn't watching, wrote this note, and left it here to beg Adrian for help…
But Quirrell had likely chosen the wrong person. Adrian was not the soft-hearted sort Quirrell imagined.
If he asked Dumbledore for help, he might have a better chance of surviving.
Adrian casually crushed the note into a ball.
"Incendio!"
He flicked his hand, and the paper ball vanished in a puff of ash.
How could Adrian possibly help Quirrell? Granted, Quirrell had very likely been tempted by Voldemort into allowing him to parasitise him.
But regardless, Quirrell had done it.
The moment Quirrell chose to put his trust in Voldemort, the ending was fixed.
Even if Voldemort erased Quirrell's soul, it would be his own fault.
There was nothing much to pity.
Besides, Adrian had already used up all the apples imbued with the "Purification" trait.
Ah—at that thought, Adrian suddenly realised he needed to cultivate more plants with the "Purification" trait.
After all, to force Voldemort's soul out of a Horcrux, he would need a Purification Potion brewed from that trait.
If he were to find another of Voldemort's Horcruxes in future and didn't have any Purification Potion on hand, that would be a bother.
In the days that followed, Adrian kept a close, secret watch on Quirrell's every move.
At last, at the start of May—
When Adrian crossed paths with Quirrell in the corridor, he had the Tree of Wisdom analyse Quirrell's current state.
[Analysis failed…]
This time, even Quirrell's information was gone.
It looked as though Quirrell's body had been completely taken by Voldemort.
And Voldemort, it seemed, had found some way to evade the Tree of Wisdom's observation.
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