After that, Avada experienced the calmest stretch of time he'd had since enrolling at Hogwarts.
There were no mysterious dark wizards begging for help because their main soul was trapped in a Horcrux. No need to pledge loyalty to a Dark Lord growing out of the back of someone's head. No convoluted cases that demanded endless mental gymnastics. And for the time being, no Dementors lurking about to disturb his peace…
At last, his mind was free from constant plotting and calculation, allowing him to focus wholeheartedly on the research he truly enjoyed.
Tom Riddle's Horcrux diary had already been taken away by Dumbledore for study, and in the end, it never fell into Avada's hands. As a result, his progress in Horcrux research didn't advance any further. However, Dumbledore had surprisingly set aside a portion of basilisk materials specifically for him—bones, flesh, skin, nerves, even slices of brain tissue—all delivered directly to Avada for unrestricted study. At Avada's request, he was also able to borrow the basilisk's eye for several days, gaining considerable inspiration in the fields of curses and Transfiguration.
But more than any of that, where Avada truly benefited was this—
The ability to perceive souls, which he had awakened during his very first Divination lesson, could finally be used properly.
Previously, in order to kill the basilisk as quickly as possible and resolve the crisis, he had poured nearly all of his energy into deciphering the soul-based magic that sealed the Chamber's entrance. The sheer complexity of that spell was obviously far beyond what a beginner who had only just brushed against soul studies could hope to comprehend in a short time.
Now, however, he could finally slow down. Using the Horcruxes in his possession, the Resurrection Stone, fragments of other people's souls, and the scattered bits of soul-related knowledge found in the books Professor Baker had gifted him, he was able to begin studying the soul in a far more systematic way.
Several months later, he finally managed to barely step through the door of soul magic—and achieved his first tangible research result.
Professor Baker's "Dual Casting" technique had been successfully replicated by Avada at the soul level.
And not merely replicated.
He had surpassed the original version, fully realizing true "dual-mindedness."
Originally, Professor Baker had relied on an almost exploit-like method to barely force the human mind into a dual-threaded state for an extremely brief moment, enabling the simultaneous casting of two different spells. But once Avada gained a preliminary understanding of the soul's structure, he was astonished to discover that achieving dual-threaded—or even multi-threaded—thinking at the soul level was absurdly easy.
After giving it some thought, that realization made perfect sense.
After all, the very Horcruxes he had been studying were the most typical examples of multi-threaded soul activity. The diary Horcrux and Voldemort were clearly the same soul, yet they could curse Avada and Dumbledore in entirely different ways at the same time. Wasn't that remarkable?
There was even a certain Horcrux creator whose main soul was forced into endless scheming against his own Horcruxes—but Avada wasn't going to name names.
He also discovered that as long as the soul itself wasn't split, no matter how many threads of thought were running, they all belonged to the same consciousness. There was no risk of accidentally splitting one's awareness just by thinking too much, which made the technique perfectly safe to use.
That said, it came with a side effect.
Since all those threads belonged to a single consciousness, they naturally had to share the same pool of processing power.
This, Avada suspected, was the fundamental reason Voldemort's intelligence declined as his soul became increasingly fragmented. As for why the Horcrux diary possessed such terrifying cunning, Avada guessed it might be because it had been imbued with memories from Voldemort's intellectual peak—and hadn't been polluted by memories from his later, increasingly degraded periods.
Of course, this was still just speculation. After all, Avada hadn't managed to snatch the diary from Dumbledore's hands to study it personally.
Even so, this breakthrough caused Avada's research efficiency to skyrocket.
During the many hours consumed by regular school classes, he could devote a small fraction of his mental capacity to handling relatively simple third-year coursework, while the majority of his processing power quietly continued soul research in the background. The amount of time he could effectively spend on research multiplied severalfold overnight.
And beyond research—
Dumbledore's retaliatory strike against the hardline pure-blood faction finally began to bear fruit.
In the subsequent trials, five of the seven indicted governors were sentenced directly to Azkaban. On top of that came enormous financial compensation to Hogwarts and the affected students, delivering devastating blows to the pure-blood families backing them and causing their social standing to plummet.
What surprised many was that the affair's second true culprit, Lucius Malfoy, once again managed to escape conviction.
The justification was nearly identical to last time.
Dumbledore had proven that Voldemort's Dark magical relics possessed the ability to beguile minds—or even directly control them. Lucius clung to this point relentlessly, insisting that all his actions had been the result of external control and bore no relation to his own will.
Coupled with his claim that he had never known such a Dark artifact existed in his household, and the erasure of Dobby's memories—which resulted in a lack of definitive evidence—his remaining charges were reduced to merely possessing certain Dark magical items illegally. After paying an enormous fine and being expelled from the Board of Governors, he ultimately avoided imprisonment.
With seven governors expelled in one stroke, the Board was naturally reorganized. Aside from the remaining five governors becoming noticeably more well-behaved, representatives from four mid-tier pure-blood families joined the Board. As a result, the original twelve-member Board was reduced to nine, and the funds available to support Hogwarts' operations inevitably took a hit.
Fortunately, between the massive compensation payments and a certain Minister for Magic desperately funneling money into Hogwarts to make up for nearly backing the wrong side earlier, the school's finances were still sufficient.
At the same time, Hagrid's case was successfully overturned.
After Dumbledore presented the Horcrux diary as evidence—certified by experts from the Department of Mysteries—along with Moaning Myrtle's testimony and the indisputable basilisk corpse, the Ministry of Magic and the Wizengamot finally agreed to reopen the case from fifty years ago. Hagrid was cleared of all charges and had his rights restored, including the right to wield a wand.
That said, the fact that he had kept an XXXXX-class Acromantula at the school was undeniably real. As a result, Hogwarts did not reinstate his formal education status, leaving Hagrid officially a dropout.
But since he was about to take up the post of Care of Magical Creatures professor anyway, it made no real difference. He didn't mind in the slightest—so long as he could continue serving Hogwarts and Dumbledore, that was more than enough for him.
And so—
After the petrified students finally recovered amid tears and wailing, after the Weasley twins—faces still covered in turtles and Nifflers—chased Ron and Avada halfway across the castle, and after Avada, Baron, Cedric, and Hermione once again claimed first place in their respective year-end examinations…
Hogwarts at last brought this turbulent year to a close, welcoming the long-anticipated end-of-year feast.
(End of Chapter)