Peter's letter assuring his safety arrived late, not until May.
In it, he recounted everything that had happened that day in meticulous detail, though Tver had already heard most of it from Harry.
However, there was one part he had not known, what happened after Peter was controlled by Voldemort.
According to Peter, Voldemort had indeed briefly separated his soul from his body, but not to kill him. That eerie magic was not meant for that.
It was meant to absorb his soul.
From a short distance away, Voldemort used his breathing, drawing in and releasing, to slowly pull the separated soul into himself bit by bit.
Fortunately, Voldemort had no intention of killing Peter outright. After all, Peter was the only one who could stay by his side and assist him.
By Voldemort's own explanation, he was merely experimenting with magic. Normally, one would need to kill a person first before absorbing their scattered soul.
But for Voldemort, that was far too inefficient.
So he developed a spell that allowed him to directly absorb a complete soul.
And to perfect that spell, Peter became the test subject.
Now, Voldemort would summon him from time to time, extracting a fragment of his soul each time. Before Peter could recover, he would come back and take even more.
Gradually, Peter felt as though he was being drained dry. Although Voldemort controlled it carefully and did not damage the core of his soul, he still became noticeably weaker.
That was why this letter had been delayed by nearly a month.
During this time, Tver had also taken the effort to sense the crystal within Peter's soul and confirmed that it had not suffered serious damage.
But the loss itself was unavoidable. Even after Tver had Cynthia secretly send him some potions, it could not restore his vitality.
As Cynthia put it, Peter's dark circles were even worse than Tver's at his most exhausted.
Still, knowing that Peter was relatively safe was good news for Tver.
More importantly, he now knew that Voldemort was absorbing souls.
Absorbing souls was extremely dangerous. It was like an ordinary person deliberately trying to split their own mind into multiple personalities, and the more, the better.
Even if Voldemort had the strength to suppress the remnants of the souls he absorbed, their memories, will, and even their lingering resistance would inevitably affect his mind.
The impact would be far greater than the side effects Tver experienced from studying dark magic.
At this moment, the ever-smug Marvolio offered a somewhat plausible explanation.
"Voldemort probably sensed my existence and felt threatened, so he had no choice but to use this inefficient method to make up for his missing soul power."
Even though his voice came through the badge slightly distorted, the pride in it was unmistakable.
"Yes, yes, you're amazing," Tver replied perfunctorily.
Even without precedent, the fact that Marvolio, as a Horcrux, could surpass the original was already astonishing enough.
"But the problem is, if your soul power falls behind, will you still be able to fight him for control of the body? That determines whether you can have a healthy body after your resurrection."
"No." Marvolio's tone suddenly grew subdued.
"With his current condition, even if he absorbs Little Potter's Horcrux, the part of him that belongs to Tom Riddle will never surpass me."
"In other words, he has given up competing with me for control of the body and chosen to exist in this world as a pure Voldemort."
Tver's eyes widened in surprise. If anyone else had been in the office, they might have thought this usually composed professor had been replaced by someone else.
"So your connection with him has been completely cut off?"
"That's right," Marvolio answered firmly. "Once both of our souls became complete, we could no longer contain each other, and there's no longer any subordinate relationship between us."
"It's like twins. Once they've fully developed in the womb, they can only be separated…"
Tver looked even more surprised. "You actually understand reproduction?"
"That's the process of life's creation, you idiot! As a Dark Lord who deals with life and death, what's strange about knowing this?!"
Tver ignored that and focused on a more important question.
"Then whose Horcrux is Harry now? Yours or his?"
The Horcrux in Harry's head would definitely be removed once Dumbledore learned about it.
If that led to a conflict between Dumbledore and Marvolio, it would be troublesome.
"I'm not entirely sure," Marvolio said, "but like you said, if Little Potter is connected to Voldemort's soul, then it probably has nothing to do with me."
Tver nodded in satisfaction.
Harry's condition was the best possible answer. It might not be certain, but at least the connection between Marvolio and Harry was much weaker.
"That's good. Since Voldemort has chosen to abandon the past, then it falls to you to inherit Slytherin's final bloodline, Tom Riddle."
On the other end, Marvolio paused.
His earlier disappointment had come from Voldemort abandoning the pride of being Slytherin's heir, even the pride of being the genius Tom Riddle.
He had not expected Tver to pick up on that just from his tone.
"Heh. So this is the Dark Lord who manipulates people's hearts?" he muttered with a soft chuckle.
Being called by that long-forgotten name again felt… unexpectedly good.
"Oh right, Scrimgeour from the Auror Office. Find a chance to promote him. At the very least, don't let him stay in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement."
"Why?" Marvolio asked.
"So your authority will be higher. If you don't take control of the entire Department of Magical Law Enforcement in Britain, how am I supposed to act freely in other countries?"
"…So you just want me to do the work."
"Of course. Why do you think I went through so much trouble to bring you back?"
Tver casually put away the badge, cutting off Marvolio's grumbling, completely unaware that whatever faint goodwill the Auror had toward him had vanished entirely.
"P-Professor?"
Even after years of classes, Neville still felt nervous as he poked his head through the suddenly opened door.
Draco, on the other hand, did not hesitate. He pushed the door open and dragged Neville straight to their usual seats.
"Professor, we've already mastered the Cruciatus Curse. When do we move on to the next step?"
Tver was in a good mood and did not mind Draco's slight arrogance.
"In terms of controlling the spell, you've done well. But remember, you're not learning this spell to hurt others. You're learning it to understand how it works."
"So next, we'll begin studying the principles behind the damage caused by the Cruciatus Curse."
"Are you ready?"
Looking at the professor's bright smile, Draco suddenly felt a twinge of regret.
"Actually, this is something Longbottom needs to learn. Maybe we should…"
"Hm?"
"We're ready!"