"You should know where the Invisibility Cloak is too, shouldn't you?"
"It would be hard not to."
Grindelwald admitted it with perfect ease. "It's at Hogwarts, in the hands of the boy chosen by prophecy who once defeated the Dark Lord… Thanks to that, I also learned that the Potter family is the other bloodline descended from the Peverell brothers. And once I knew that, there was no way for me to get the cloak over here for research for the time being. Albus's feelings still have to be respected, after all…"
"My original plan was to entrust the matter to one of the Shafiq children. But since Benjamin already brought you into the fold ahead of time, and you seem quite interested in both the soul and the Deathly Hallows, and you also happen to be on good terms with Harry Potter… then I assume you wouldn't mind studying that Invisibility Cloak on the side?"
"…I'll do my best."
Avada had to admit that he was extremely interested in finding out whether the Invisibility Cloak could truly block the power of Death.
"That's good."
Grindelwald nodded. "After all, with your ability to directly perceive magic, and with the Resurrection Stone already in your hands, researching that should be easy for you. If Nobby Leach University had to do that experiment itself, it would take a tremendous amount of effort… Though if they managed to deduce the Elder Wand's true ability even without having the wand itself, then this little matter probably wouldn't be beyond them either…"
The Elder Wand… wait!
Suddenly, a thought struck Avada's mind like lightning. The question that had just arisen in his heart burst out before he could stop it:
"Mr. Grindelwald, do you know about the repentance effect?"
"Repentance?"
Grindelwald paused for a moment. "Of course I do—and I already know what you're getting at. You mean that the emotion of repentance can also affect the soul, allowing shattered soul fragments to reunite, correct?"
Avada nodded.
"But don't you think that 'repentance' is itself also a form of 'love'?"
Grindelwald spoke slowly. "A person incapable of love cannot truly repent from the heart. Merely regretting that one failed to make a choice that would have benefited oneself cannot be called repentance."
"The prerequisite for repentance is sincerely recognizing that one's past actions were evil, and that while they harmed the victim, they also torment one's own spirit. So the emotion of repentance can reflect a broader love for concepts like peace and justice, as well as a kind of self-love that seeks to soothe one's own heart…"
"But as for why repentance can repair a soul torn apart by the power of Death, and whether other forms of 'love' besides repentance can have the same effect, that still awaits further research from us…"
"Then tell me,"
The surge of exhilaration was so overwhelming that Avada barely heard the long explanation Grindelwald had just given. Instead, he immediately blurted out a seemingly unrelated question.
"If the power of love can be simulated by a magical object, then could repentance be simulated too?!"
"Simulate repentance?"
Grindelwald raised an eyebrow, clearly surprised by the idea, but he still gave a serious answer.
"In theory, certainly. After all, the Elder Wand has already provided a precedent for using an external object to draw out the power of the soul. Repentance is, in essence, also a way of employing the soul's power, so there is no reason it couldn't be simulated through a method similar to the Elder Wand…"
"But why are you asking that? Has your own soul been split and now requires repair?"
"No."
Once he received Grindelwald's confirmation, joy nearly burst out of Avada's heart in a flood, though his reason forcefully held it down. Even so, a trace of trembling inevitably entered his voice.
"There's nothing wrong with my soul… But I was thinking—if the power of repentance really can be simulated by an external object, then could I use that to reclaim the soul fragments from Horcruxes without harming the Horcruxes' hosts themselves?!"
This was something he had dreamed of accomplishing for years, yet had always been stymied by!
Who would have thought that the answer to this problem had always been so close, hidden in Dumbledore's Elder Wand?
"…A very interesting idea."
After hearing Avada's question, Grindelwald fell into thought for quite a while. Only then did he look up again, and there was a new spark in his eyes that had not been there before.
"You want to use that method to strip away the soul fragment from the Resurrection Stone? I had assumed that after sealing away that Dark Lord, you would simply stop bothering with the matter. After all, in all of history, he is the first man mad enough to split his soul into this many pieces. I doubt even I would have had the patience to slowly gather that many Horcruxes…"
"Not just the Resurrection Stone."
Avada took a deep breath to steady himself. "There are many highly valuable relics that Voldemort turned into Horcruxes. I don't want those precious objects destroyed for the sake of a mere fragment of soul."
And even that was him putting it mildly. The true reason this revelation excited him so much was that—
There was finally a way to solve Harry Potter's problem.
All along, there had only been two methods he knew of that could affect the soul. Aside from the vague and elusive repentance effect, the other was the extremely complex and profound magic within Horcrux creation used to place a soul fragment into a vessel. Voldemort's main soul had been successfully sealed using precisely that kind of magic, and that path had therefore been the focus of Avada's research all this time.
But the problem was that compared to the profound realm of the soul, Horcrux magic was simply too crude and primitive. As a result, there were only a handful of problems it could actually solve. Even stripping a soul fragment out of an object had already cost Avada enormous effort. A situation like Harry's, where two souls had coexisted for more than a decade, was practically impossible to resolve through that method…
And now, suddenly, someone was telling him that the power of repentance could be simulated—and that the key to opening that door was Dumbledore's Elder Wand, something he could see practically anytime.
How could he not be overjoyed?
"Mr. Grindelwald,"
Avada swallowed, both excited and tense.
"May I tell Professor Dumbledore about this?"
"I'm afraid I very badly need to obtain the secret contained within the Elder Wand… Truly, it's that important. You may not realize just how difficult the forces behind Voldemort are to deal with. As long as he isn't completely dead, they'll never give up for even a single day…"
"Oh, those pure-blood families, yes?"
Grindelwald gave a snort. "If I had still been the one in power, once the Muggle problem was resolved, the very first people I'd have dealt with would have been them… Fine. You may discuss the Deathly Hallows and the soul with Albus. As for the reason, make one up yourself. You aren't going to expose your connection with me just for this, are you?"
"And besides, I suspect Albus already has some guesses of his own about the Elder Wand, but lacks the sort of conditions a place like the university would provide for proper research… He likely won't make things too difficult for you."
(End of Chapter)